Combat Rescue Device - Rat Claw

[swbradley1]

I found this rather interesting today in one of my briefing e-mails. It just shows the necessity is the mother of all inventors. Field Life-saver: 10th Mountain Division Invents “The Rat Claw” They company is waiting for a patent on it. Rat Claw info PDF: http://www.ibistek.com/pdfs/ratclaw.pdf Might make a cool addition to anyone's MV.

 

[zb39]

Troopers taking care of business!!!!!!!!!!!Thats what it's all about!!

 

[maddawg308]

Here's a picture for those who can't follow links:

 

[davidkroberts]

yeah its a design that wasnt invesnted by the 10th Mountain. It was one of those things a bunch of security contractors cooked up in Iraq because they never have the equipment the military does to do a combat extraction. I cannot remember when they came up with it. I think it was early 2005 in Baghdad. We were using the curved ends of crow bars with an eyelet welded on the end to rip the doors off armored vehicles that were wrecked or damaged in Blast or accidents.

Its good that the military follwed the cues the contractors left but they didnt invent it. Does make me wonder who did come up with it though, im thinking probably the Brits with Agesis or Armorgroup but the first people I saw using them was Blackwater.

 

[swbradley1]

yeah its a design that wasnt invesnted by the 10th Mountain. It was one of those things a bunch of security contractors cooked up in Iraq because they never have the equipment the military does to do a combat extraction. I cannot remember when they came up with it. I think it was early 2005 in Baghdad. We were using the curved ends of crow bars with an eyelet welded on the end to rip the doors off armored vehicles that were wrecked or damaged in Blast or accidents.

Its good that the military follwed the cues the contractors left but they didnt invent it. Does make me wonder who did come up with it though, im thinking probably the Brits with Agesis or Armorgroup but the first people I saw using them was Blackwater.

My gut tells me you are probably correct. I wasn't there so if the safety officer of the outfit says he invented it I don't have a way to dispute the claim. Still looks a good tool though and should be easy enough to make. I made an extraction tool in the Navy that was distributed to all the carriers and they even gave me a token amount of money for it. By token I mean it wouldn't cover an oil change on one of the trucks but I still have the award paperwork for the Navy. As a civilian I even saw my extraction tool being used on another ship.

 

[papercu]

I may not be following this right, but I see a hook, hardly a new idea. What am I missing? Wayne

 

[maliboo66]

kbr guys were making our own tools in 04

Not that it matters but everyone in Iraq has been under equipped for rescues since day 1. kbrs bob tails have come up with some rescue ideas as well as load securing equipment mods. Almost everything the Marines have is jury rigged surplus store left overs. Necessity is the mom of invention and invention wins wars and saves lives. HOOORRAAAAHHHH!!!

 

[powersmoke18]

wonder how much it cost?? 4 or 5 grand??

 

[Elwenil]

I may not be following this right, but I see a hook, hardly a new idea. What am I missing? Wayne

Agreed. This looks to me like a bit of this and that assembled from all the usual chokers, shackles, hooks and such that are part of my Ramcharger's normal recovery kit. It's not really a "tool" in my eyes, especially since allowing a wire rope to lay against the shackles with no pulley or thimble is a recipe for damaged wire rope. Useful in a pinch, but not something I would do regularly.

 

[davidkroberts]

The way you use it is in the place of a jaws of life. We had trouble extracting men and equipment quickly from damaged vehicles after a blast so someone came up with the "Rat Claw" as its called above. You take the pointy sharp end and wedge it in a doorframe or through a piece of broken armored glass. Hook a tow strap to it and pull at a 45 degree angle with your vehicle. If it doesnt go on a gentle steady pull. Rare back and give it some juice and rip the door off. Works like a charm.

To make your own cut the curved end off a cheap crow bar on the curvy end. Get a buddy of your who can actually do a full penetration weld and attach a clevis hook or other similar attachment device. ( Im not a great welder so youll have to forgive the buddy comment). Get yourself a good tow strap and your cooking.....

 

[Elwenil]

Seems like a very unsafe thing to use in my opinion. I do note that they list a safety strap hooked up to control the rope after it releases but still not something I would call safe. I fully understand it's use on the battlefield where a few seconds can mean life or death, but here at home, I think such a tool would be more of a liability than anything. Also, the common tow straps in use are very elastic and would easily send something like this flying through the windshield of the pulling vehicle. There are numerous verified reports of people being killed by this sort of thing and that apparatus would probably go through a windshield like chain shot through sails and rigging.

 

[swbradley1]

I think I would use it exactly they way it is designed. My Brother uses chains for pulling anything since the chain will lose its energy quickly and die rather than whip through the air hitting everything in its path if it breaks. I remember the videos I had to watch in the Navy about carrier flight deck safety and watching a guy lose his legs when a cable broke. (A good reason for using a remote control winch.)

 

[itsjustdan23]

Rememer if you use a chain tie an old t-shirt or towel around it to make a dead spot in the chain...They do lose speed quite fast but I've had my close calls with them..And braided cables as well. They all break. So if your pulling something or around someone tuggin something with either stand at least twice the distance of the chain/cable back. 10ft stand 20. Better safe than sorry. Seen my fair share of logging accidents. Watch the leggs

 

[FireFighterHill]

I spent a year in Iraq at "Camp Cooke" AKA "Al Taji" AKA "C5" as a contract FireFighter.
We realized right away the problem with trying to extract soldiers from up armored Hummer's that were never meant to be armored. As contractors we weren't allowed to leave the base to perform extrication's. So we taught about a dozen soldiers how to use the jaws of life on Hummer's that had been wrecked or hit by IED's. We then set them up with a stokes basket loaded with a backboard, jaws of life and several other rescue tools. What we did caught on, and alot of other bases started doing it.

 

[swbradley1]

Rememer if you use a chain tie an old t-shirt or towel around it to make a dead spot in the chain...They do lose speed quite fast but I've had my close calls with them..And braided cables as well. They all break. So if your pulling something or around someone tuggin something with either stand at least twice the distance of the chain/cable back. 10ft stand 20. Better safe than sorry. Seen my fair share of logging accidents. Watch the leggs

Never heard of that one before. I have no way to test putting a towel on a chain and forcing a failure. I'd hate to think of what it would take to get any of my chains to fail nor would I want to be there if they did.

 

[rmgill]

swbradley take some good highquality chains, link them together with a quicklink of lower rating. You can force a failure that way. A hammer close quicklink or a screw closed quicklink.