Don't remember if I ever carried any of those flares. But I will never forget trying to do 40 degree night bombing with those "flickering, shadow-producing, vertigo-generators" allegedly trying to illuminate the target... either in training around the Salton Sea, or for real around the Mu Ghia Pass.
As a newly winged nugget and fresh caught F-4 driver, I couldn't believe anybody could night bomb with those damn things. It was f'n crazy! As the flares swung back and forth in their chutes as you know, the shadows danced, ebbed and flowed. Terrible vertigo inducing! It was like a horror movie on Halloween. It was worse than a night trap in bad weather!
Most of my "flare" flyin' was done in the Med flying the Spad ...bombing smoke lights, sometimes under flares ...at night. Nothing like eight 45* runs down the chute, under a flare throwing those shadows around the cockpit ...high speed 4 G pullup, rejoin the racetrack pattern, do it again. It WILL make a very damn good instrument pilot out of ya ...if you survive! LOL!!