Real Smoke

Today the active army class fired up an M56 smoke generator right outside the building where we work on our equipment. I was surprised because these billowing smoke clouds can only be generated for short periods under conditions of nearly no wind, but two classes sent big white clouds into the countryside. The building on the far side of the cloud all but disappeared after just seconds of smoke. It works very well at hiding a building and works much better obscuring smaller things-like vehicles.

Give Me 50!

This afternoon four of my classmates were told "Give Me 50!" at the beginning of an afternoon class session. The instructor relented somewhat and said they could do the 50 pushups in two sets of 25. The offense? The instructor said she would tell us her first name at the party at the end of class. The four guys pushing the earth down tried to figure out her first name by questioning the other instructor. Speculation about her name pretty much stopped after that.

Army Instruction

Today's class was on 600 gallon-per-hour and 3000-gallon-per-hour water purification units. These water purifiers can take in swamp water, sea water, even water contaminated with chemical agents and turn it into safe drinking water. Most of the day was on the 600gpm unit with troubleshooting of the electrical system, preventive maintennance checks and putting the system into operation. With the 3000 gpm, both of the units available for training had maintenance problems so we could only simulate. In another occurrence of what could have been the dullest method of instruction on the planet, we read aloud, in turn, 20 pages of the start up procedures in the Army Technical Manual. A sample follows:
a) With the raw water pump primed, the discharge hose will quickly fill and harden with pressure. Check the hose and the media inlet/outlet pressure gage
(1) to assure pressure has been established. NOTE If pressure is not observed check the raw water hose for kinks, sharp bends, or leaks. Check that control panel and valves are set up properly. (b) Push CHEMICAL PUMP START
(6). (c) When media inlet/outlet pressure gage
(1) reading steadies, push BOOSTER PUMP START
(3), and slowly close feed valve
(4) until feed flowmeter
(5) reads 100 gpm.
NOTE
If 100 gpm cannot be obtained check as follows: · Check discharge hose for kinks restricting the water flow. · Check valves for proper position. · Check suction hose connections to assure tightness. · Refer to Troubleshooting.
(d) Open media filter vent valve
(2), close, when a steady stream of water is seen.
(e) Hold steady condition (no control operations) for 10 minutes.

If you want more Enjoy!!!!

So the nine of us students and our teacher crammed ourselves in a 20-foot container that houses the control systems and filters and read 20 pages of the manual aloud in turn--sentence by sentence. After a few minutes the reading rate got almost to auctioneer speed and everyone yelled in unison when we read NOTE or CAUTION! By the time we were done everyone was laughing and making jokes on the way out the door.

Home for a Day

We were released from Saturday afternoon through Sunday evening. I lived close enough to go home. More than half the students in the class went to Washington DC with the instructors all day Sunday. I got to do half of the Sunday ride with my riding buddies, go to Palm Sunday service with my family, watch the F1 GP of Australia with Nigel and even sleep in past 9am. The guys who went on the DC field trip left at 8 am on Sunday. There's no sleeping in on Army time, even on a day off.

Berets are a Big Deal

Our unit wears patrol caps, but here at school berets are the uniform of the day for everything. My classmates have showed me how to make the beret fit my head. With time off this weekend I will be "shaving" my bhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.giferet so it will fit tighter on my head. Here's the official info on the beret.

Army School: Free Food or Fitness

For those of us who prefer to work out in the afternoon instead of 5 am, the Army school schedule means I have to choose between free food and fitness. We get an hour for lunch. I can go the chow hall in the van or ride for about 30 minutes and get fast food at a base concession. I have opted for fast food to take advantage of the 50-60 degree weather every day. Same thing for dinner. We are done with class by 6 pm and the gym closes at 8pm. So the last few days I have ridden or gone to the gym to work out and run, and missed the free food at the mess hall. Tonight I tried to have it all. I rode for an hour and 15 minutes, showed up at the mess hall at 1850--ten minutes before closing, left at 1910, gym at 1920, 20 minutes of upper body, 20 minutes on the treadmill and out the door at 1956. Next time I will wait until after the run to eat. Free food is not worth the feeling of running on a full stomach.

At Least They Have the SPEED Channel

It's 11:35 and I will be tired in class tomorrow because tonight is the beginning of the 2008 Formula 1 season. So even if our residence has some tendency to catch fire, they have the SPEED Channel. The F1 season is broadcast live on Speed, so that means Friday's 1pm practice in Australia airs at 11pm on Thursday on the US East Coast. For fans, Ferrari is back on top of the practice speed charts. Fernando Alonso is back at Renault and is mid pack.