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Oh yes!

Guyfang

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My nightmare would be to wake up to just the sound of clacking fuel pumps!

You will never know how often this happened on the Tac Site. All 7 gen sets ran on Aux. Sometimes in the middle of the night, rats, dogs, people or even wind would disturb the Aux fuel line running into the 600 gal pods on the ground. Or when we simply dropped the lines into the tanks pods. Really bad was when ALL the gen sets were clicking away, and no one noticed! The Scope Dopes went to sleep and when the radars dropped one at a time off line, they slept on. Only when the radar vans dropped off line, would the the 18,000 BTU Air Cons go off line. THEN the operators would wake up in the dark. We had no way to really tell how much was in the tanks, other than the good old M1A1 Eyeball, and a army flashlight with weak batteries at 03:00 A few time, it was ice. The water in the tanks froze up and then the whole site dropped off line.
 

cbisson

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When he was young, my son commented that the 003A helped him get to sleep.
I occasionally crew my brother's 68' trawler style boat when he's moving it. Always get stuck with the night watch. But to the point, one of the things I look forward too is being lulled to sleep by the steady sound of the diesel main engine turning at 1600-1700 rpm. A symphony of mechanical perfection.
 

Guyfang

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1974, the REFORGER field problem. Near Ulm, I think. We had been on the go, three days and nights without sleep. It was the last three days of the Field Problem. We got the word that we were to be "killed" by a nuke. At the appointed time, we all just dropped where we were and went into a deep, deep sleep. Only to be blown out of our sleep by a simulated nuke. It was not close, but by hell, it raised the dead! The mushroom cloud rose up like a stink finger! My dog was going insane and we all really had no earthly idea what the hell had happened. Kinda looked like a Zombie movie.
 

LuckeyD

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Had the occasion to fly into a FOB to help Soldiers fix a system with two 006s on a flat lowboy. TQGs coming in in a month. Got em going, and with no place to stay so I took a nap between them on the lowboy. Ear muffs on I had no issues and konked really hard as it was 2 days on the go. Got awake real fast when the radar picked up incoming and the little 20MM gatling burped out a few thousand rounds to take out the incoming. It was mounted on the other end of the lowboy. That rumble of gens was an everyday/night thing in those days. Noisy was a couple of 009s. Had a hard time paralleling those as one had a shaky fuel control swivel joint.
 

LuckeyD

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If you are into just plane Gen noise, stick your head in the side of an EPP running at 130KW looking for an oil leak. Better is giving a class, in a test cell, on a GTE-1500 running at 40,000 RPM and opening the bleed air valve and being told by hearing conservation they measured 160 DB. They were at the end of the cell but I was beside that turbine. We used ear plugs and muffs and i have hearing loss since on record. Monthly class. Nothing over 4,000 hertz. Below that I am top notch they say. So life is good and a cold one helps.
 

maddawg308

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Sleeping with all the noise was not much of an issue, the sudden wake up when the guy camping next to you fires off his balky gasoline stove and sent a fireball 1200 feet in the air is a real wakeup call! Did you ever have that problem Maddawg? :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
HEY! I don't appreciate that BS! That fireball was only 200 feet high, 300 tops. :)
 

Guyfang

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Maddawg means a Herman Nelson heater I think. The winter of 1974 was a cold one. The 24G Radar mechanics were working a bad radar problem, and after 2 days decided to put up a tent , on the main control side of the radar, and install a Herman Nelson heater so they all would not be turned into human ice statues.

The most feared piece of equipment in the Army inventory was not a Tank. It was a Herman Nelson heater. To me, Gasoline and fire have never mixed. Not ever. The Herman Nelson is Gas fired. No one would touch the darned thing. So the NCOIC came over and told me that the heater was Engineer Equipment. I was an Engineer. So I was going to start the darn thing. So I got smart on it by reading an old funky TM and went up the radar berm fortified by two Bock Beers.

Low and behold, it worked! So, proud as any PFC could be, I strutted down to my hooch and passed out. Several hours later, the stove ran out of fuel. One of the radar fools went down and got 5 gallons of MOGAS, and dumped it in the tank. What he did not do was turn the stove regulator off. Then he went down for another 5 gallons. He probably stopped in for a bowl, also. The whole time the gas was running into the burner chamber. After adding the second Jerry can full, he decided to light it. He had watched me, and felt fully trained and qualified to do so. So he opened up the burner chamber and struck a match. The sound of the detonation was impressive. Woke me right up. I got up and stumbled out the door. The tent was blown off the berm and laying on the dirt road. PFC Abbott was also sitting on the road. He was staring off into the starry sky. He had no mustache anymore. Nor eyebrows, nor any hair that protruded from under his hat. Since he had on the Army "Catch me, screw me glasses", he was only flash blind for a while. His new nick name after that night was, "Boom".
 

rickf

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You will have to PM Mike on the details. I am pretty sure at least one of those times it was a civvie stove. All ribbing was in jest and while he was a bit perturbed at first it ended up with all involved getting a good laugh.

The best explosion I saw (outside of active duty) was at that same show where an immersion heater used for washing the dishes went out sometime in the evening and someone decided to relight it. Well, it was not fully cooled off and they turned the fuel on and waited a bit to toss in the match. THAT fireball was a legitimate 150 foot and LOUD!!!! As someone who had a very, very close encounter with a mortar round I about soiled myself on that one!! Definitely a testament to the strength of an immersion heater!
 
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