The Military is starting to scare me...

[B3.3T]

Society has been dumbed down to the point, as a nation, we are in serious trouble. While many of us grew up fooling around with go karts, mini bikes, cars, etc., the current generation doesn't even ride bicycles. School sports and video games is all they know. No independent learning skills and certainly nothing to do with tools. It's pitiful. During the Cold War, it was one of our greatest assets over the Soviets. Now, it is lost almost completely.

 

[jasonjc]

OK, fantastic stories of stupid. The grenade one had me filling my shorts...not just stupid maintenace but was things so bad as to need to put live hand grenades next to the only (known) part of a driving maching that can self detonate?!?!

Gotta throw in my stupid story. Helicopter rotor heads are held on by compression of pieces of metal called split cones. These items can only be installed one way, period. Noway, no how can you put them in upside down AND install the rotor head correctly. Wrong. On the Huey, the split cones are hard to see once installed. If installed correctly all flight control adjustments are correct, nothing normally has to be done. to anything. Subject idiot (read I D ten T) installed split cones upside down. Checked rotor head adjustments with appropriate measuring devices and found them all wrong. Light bulb was burnt out, no idea something was wrong. Made all adjustments to make rotor controls fit correctly. Took almost an entire 8 hour shift screwing up this helicopter. Next shift comes on, is told everything is set, all red X's have been signed off and is ready for test flight (FCF to you rotor heads). Crew walks out to aircraft, does a quicky preflight and jumps in the seat. Night shift Crew Chief hooks up power, engines start and rotor begins spinning. Already feels "funny" but it's a test flight so "funny" things can happen. Got the bird to 100% and brought it into a hover (ten foot IGE). Bird was shaking so hard the windshield center post was flexing. Crew imediately landed and shut down in record time. Got out and watched Crew Chief climb up top and see if he could determine what went wrong. Crew Chief turned absolutely white with eyes as big as saucers . "Split cones are upside down Sir", says the Crew Chief to the Pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer. Many filled flight suits. Flight Safety gets called, Ground Safety gets called and Commender gets called. All want to see the upside down split cones...many filled flight suits later, Crew Chief gets decertified on rotor installation, retrained and back flying the next day (he was best buds with the maintenance chief). Strangly enough, no one ever was available to fly test flights (FCFs) on any bird he worked on for the rest of my time in the quadron, which was about 2+ years.

If the book says it can't be done, it can be done by a sufficiently stupid person. Not just any stupid person can manage idiotic acts of this magnatude, it takes a real moron to mess this kind of thing up.

Someday I'll tell the one about the engine rigging gone bad but that's it for today. Oh and I've never seen a battery blow up except when I threw a D cell in a bonfire. there's a reson for the warning but it sure was fun

I've put a few rotor heads on it my day. I can not belive anyone could put the split cone in upside down. But then again I have work with a few that could. Did the TI not look at it? Boy I miss those days, wish I had stayed in longer.

 

[jeffhuey1n]

I've put a few rotor heads on it my day. I can not belive anyone could put the split cone in upside down. But then again I have work with a few that could. Did the TI not look at it? Boy I miss those days, wish I had stayed in longer.

The AF for a short period of time had a fit of insanity. They allowed certain people to sign off their own Red X's. No one else looked at it. Fortunately the insanity didn't last very long, mainly due to incidents such as that one. I miss those days too. After a while tho, once you make too much rank, they take all the toys away from you. Once they took the toys away, it just weren't the same.

 

[spicergear]

A friend of mine has a daughter who is a senior in HS. The school actually developed a class where the students HAD TO learn people skill and how to react to people face to face. This was after many complaints from companies saying that none of the students had people skills. They're so used to this full on digital communication world they couldn't handle a personal interview!!! ...but they can text!

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

Quoting Richard Millhouse Nixon:
"I have only THIS to say about THAT....."

 

[M1031CMT]

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

- Albert Einstein

 

[papabear]

Society has been dumbed down to the point, as a nation, we are in serious trouble. While many of us grew up fooling around with go karts, mini bikes, cars, etc., the current generation doesn't even ride bicycles. School sports and video games is all they know. No independent learning skills and certainly nothing to do with tools. It's pitiful. During the Cold War, it was one of our greatest assets over the Soviets. Now, it is lost almost completely.

My idea is to remove all warning labels...from everything...no safety training required anymore...for anything.

Let natural selection weed out the nabobs and make each person PERSONALLY responsible for their own actions!

 

[Blue2actual]

My idea is to remove all warning labels...from everything...no safety training required anymore...for anything.

Let natural selection weed out the nabobs and make each person PERSONALLY responsible for their own actions!

Bear has lost a lot of weight since you took that picture

 

[jaymcb]

My brother [who can be stupid] was jumping a van and the battery blew up in his face and burned him pretty bad. He worked on cars a ~lot, and I believe him when he says he hooked it up correctly.

Sometimes stuff just blows up. BOOM!

I had a frozen battery blow on me. When I got to the ER, the doc looked at the acid burns on my face and put a pH test strip in my eyes.

His observation....you have a very low pH in your eyes.

No chit Sherlock.

Even with eyeglasses on, still got acid in the eyes. They found chunks of the battery's top over 100 feet away

 

[ryan77]

As i have said before we have stupid adults now because kids dont get to play with bb guns, m80's, fireworks, go carts, etc all those activities would thin the herd of stupid kids thus we would have less stupid adults!!!!

 

[BEASTMASTER]

don't have to be wrong to blow up. my buddie and me were trying to get this motor to start while it was on the floor on blocks. we had it hooked up right and just kept touching the positive cable to the pos. post and after half a doz. maybe more tries KABOOM man pieces of plastic and battery acid went all over the place. not a very good move on our part. to check a batt. charge my old man used to touch a tire iron to each post on the batt. and he never had one blow up . you never know.

 

[wdbtchr]

The thing you need to remember with lead-acid batteries is that they give off hydrogen gas as they cycle. EXTREMELY explosive hydrogen. This is why even if you hook up a battery correctly it can explode if you make the last connection at the battery, arc ignites the gas=explosion.

Even if you make the last connection at a remote ground then wiggle the battery cable, you make arcs at the battery once again=explosion.

When you make reverse connections you've doubled the voltage in a short circut which eventually cause the battery/batteries to explode from heat buildup. HOWEVER if you start with reversed connection you get a very large arc and ignite the hydrogen coming off the battery.

It's not JUST stupid or inexperience that causes battries to explode.

 

[cbvet]

I've seen batteries blow up while being jumped, and saw one blow when my mother simply turned the key on.
Never saw any serious damage to the vehicle, but the acid can sure hurt you if you can't wash it off FAST!
FWIW- I've never been able to get a frag to detonate in a fire, or from another device blowing next to it.

 

[3dAngus]

I went cheap. After finding out my golf cart huge 8vdc batteries cost around $200 if they were made by Trojan (the best), I decided to get one good one and put it in with the five bad ones (super weak).

Bad mistake. Kablooey! And not right away. That 48 vdc battery charger ran for about ten minutes and one blew like a shotgun. After my two kids (grown men) got up from the ground, they came and told me a battery blew up in my golf cart. And I thought it was a sonic boom while inside the house at the time.

Mixing perfect batteries in a set and charging them all together will help find a bad one.
They overcharge, or take on to much current, rather quickly sometimes.
Batteries are dangerous!

 

[papabear]

I NEVER replace one battery in anything that has more than one, golf carts, MVs...even if the others test good.
I replace the set and keep the "good" ones for other purposes.

Costs a little more I know...but piece of mind and safety means alot to me.

 

[jets1959]

There is and never will be a shortage of stupid people. The one thing in vast supply when the SHTF.

 

[ryan77]

What scares me is how **** dumb some of these kids are now. Boss hires me a helper to help on the Plumbing van! Well were on guy # 4 in 2 years. Its tough stuff go to van get what i tell them to get, Clean up and put tools away, show up to work on time, dont use drugs, be respectful towards me and customer's, dont get arrested on days off. In 2 years haven't had one kid be able to complete these basic task's! That really scares me !!! As for being able to jump start a car i wouldnt trust most of these young punks to close a umbrella!!!!

 

[jets1959]

What scares me is how **** dumb some of these kids are now. Boss hires me a helper to help on the Plumbing van! Well were on guy # 4 in 2 years. Its tough stuff go to van get what i tell them to get, Clean up and put tools away, show up to work on time, dont use drugs, be respectful towards me and customer's, dont get arrested on days off. In 2 years haven't had one kid be able to complete these basic task's! That really scares me !!! As for being able to jump start a car i wouldnt trust most of these young punks to close a umbrella!!!!

My sister worked for home depot in Florida and she acctually had new hires not report for work their first day of work but show up two weeks later asking for their pay check.

 

[marchplumber]

What scares me is how **** dumb some of these kids are now. Boss hires me a helper to help on the Plumbing van! Well were on guy # 4 in 2 years. Its tough stuff go to van get what i tell them to get, Clean up and put tools away, show up to work on time, dont use drugs, be respectful towards me and customer's, dont get arrested on days off. In 2 years haven't had one kid be able to complete these basic task's! That really scares me !!! As for being able to jump start a car i wouldnt trust most of these young punks to close a umbrella!!!!

Hey there!
Give 'em a break! What ya want 'em to do, work? ROFLMAO!! You get a "helper" on the plumbing van? WHOA!!! Can I come work for your company? Been a service plumber for about 25 years.
God bless,
Tony

 

[acmunro]

I am also concerned about society. On the flip side I do know some young people who are responsible.
About batteries - I once had a "D" cell battery explode. They make a pretty good bang and a good mess also. The situation was some guys were removing instruments from the field bringing them into the shop to be tested. I picked one up off the floor and the case was hot. A defective battery box was causing the pack to short to ground. I removed the batteries from the pack- Set them on the work bench. Replaced the pack with a new one and went about my business shortly after that boom. One battery of the 4 I removed exploded just sitting there not hooked to anything. The short must have caused an internal short inside the battery. I quickly removed the other 3 from the work area. Be careful with batteries of any size.