About Felix
 You may be wondering why that incorrigible cat, Felix, is
wondering around on the bottom of our pages. Well, Felix the Cat is widely adopted by bomb
squads all over the world as their symbol because of his "nine lives"--a
characteristic most bomb squad technicians covet, while at the same time hope to never
need.
According to Gary Hudson, Felix was
originally adopted by the British Royal Army 321 EOD Coy RAOC in 1969 when they were first
deployed to Northern Ireland. Their radio callsign was "Felix." (thanks
Gary)
Further, Sgt Steve Gelston (11 EOD Regt RLC,
England) adds that the adoption of Felix was a mistake! Steve writes: "Back in 1969
the British army didn't use callsigns on the radio, we used "Appointment
Titles." These were nicknames given to units to identify them on the net in
much the same way as callsigns, an example of which is "Bluebell" for the Royal
Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), although they won't thank me for telling you
that. Any way, not long after 321 EOD moved in to the province they were told that they
had to think of an Appointment Title to identify themselves. The OC of the company was
sitting in his office having just heard the sad news that one of his operators had died
that morning whilst trying to render safe a device and thought "Phoenix" would
be a good name; to symbolise the unit rising from the ashes to conquer Irish terrorism.
However the young signaller that he told this to mis-heard him and thought he had said
"Felix", and so the legend was born." (thanks Steve)
Now, his unmistakable visage can be found on
bomb squad patches and paraphernalia worldwide. Felix was created by Otto Messmer for Pat
Sullivan. You can find out more trivia about Felix at http://www.flash.net/~plaza/felix/.
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