So, one evening at dusk I was returning to the barracks and four or five guys were out front throwing one.
Because it was dusk and there were tall treed in front of the barracks visibility was getting poor. One guy threw the boomarang and as it was descending the Officer of the Day walked around the corner.
Upon heating a “pfft, pfft, pfft” of the descending boomarang, he began looking around.
When the guys realized in horror that the thing was headed right for the OOD they started yelling, “Duck, Lieutenant!” But, it was too late. The thing hit him along side of the head and he went down like a sack of potatoes.
When I reached him he was sitting up and when I asked if he was OK, all he could say was, “What happened?” I informed him he had been hit by a boomarang. He was not seriously hurt, but, unaware of the boomarang craze and he was incredulous. "A boomarand"", he asked. When I looked around the throwers had all disappeared along with the boomarang. And, that’s my boomarang story.
A boomerang is a curved throwing stick used chiefly by the Aboriginals of Australia for hunting and warfare.
The Aboriginals used two kinds of boomerangs.
The returning boomerang is light, thin and well balanced, 12–30 inches long and weighs up to 12 ounces. Its shape varies from a deep, even curve to almost straight sides of an angle. The ends are twisted in opposite directions.
Returning boomerangs were used only in eastern and western Australia as playthings, in competitions and by hunters to imitate hawks for driving flocks of game birds into nets strung from trees.
The non-returning boomerang is longer, straighter and heavier than the returning type. It was used for hunting because it maimed or killed the game. In warfare it caused serious injuries to the enemy if it didn’t kill them.
Non-returning weapons were used by the ancient Egyptians, by Native Americans of California and Arizona and in southern India for killing birds, rabbits, and other animals. Thrown over areas of long grass where game birds nest, returning boomerangs can frighten these birds into taking flight, thus making them easier to hunt.
In competition, distance boomerangs are designed to go from 80-200 yards and are VERY difficult to control. They require ideal throwing conditions (light to no wind). expert skill and lots of open space...one football field is nowhere big enough...you need about 4-5 fields.
The world record for a long distance throw, set in 1999 by Manuel Schultz of Switzerland, is 780 feet, 10 inches.
Boomerangs are not toys, they are designed for competition and they can be dangerous...remember the lieutenant!
