Hey! You Can’t Do That to My Cannonball!
From AFMAN 91-201 Explosive Safety Standards:
“2.12.4. Do not tumble, drag, drop, throw, roll, or “walk” munitions.”
Now, I realize that the general public doesn’t spend a lot of time reading Air Force publications, but it seems to me that treating any munitions item with care, even one that is over 100 years ago, is common sense. Apparently the guy in this article wasn’t aware that munitions can be hazardous if abused. I especially liked the bit where he “put the ball in the back of his pickup, where it rolled around for a year”. Granted, it probably wasn’t as dim as playing with unexploded munitions from more recent times but a cannonball exploding in the back of your pickup will still ruin your day. I also like his lackadaisical attitude towards detonations: “Sure, it could explode…” If it was just his life he was putting at risk I wouldn’t have a problem with his attitude, but when your driving around a metropolitan area with live ordnance in the back of your pickup there is definitely a question of public safety. The Anchorage Bomb Squad Sgt’s assessment of this guy is dead on.
September 6th, 2005 at 6:44 pm
Next you will be telling us not to strap rockets to our backs when chasing road runners. Spoil sport.
September 7th, 2005 at 5:07 pm
No, no, that’s fine, as long as you only purchase your personal propulsion systems through ACME (they have been designated the sole source supplier and have a GSA contract) and use the appropriate personal protective equipment: Helmet, Safety Glasses, Reflective Vest, Gloves, Steel Toed Ankle High Boots, and Fire Retardent Undergarments. Oh, and a Personal Flotation Device if operating near any body of water larger than a kiddie pool.
September 8th, 2005 at 6:17 pm
Funny, I was thinking of you while watching a Coyote/Road Runner cartoon this weekend too. The one where the Coyote drops a load of “dynamite stick darts” from a balloon and they keep turning up through the rest of the cartoon. Watching that, and thinking back on our conversation on Brett’s page led me to wonder if you had ever seen _Dark_Star_, which contains a scene that must rank high on an EOD tech’s worst nightmare list.
September 9th, 2005 at 6:11 am
You know, I’ve never seen that movie but I have had several people tell me to watch it. As I recall there’s something to do with an intelligent nuclear bomb or some such, right?
September 9th, 2005 at 2:06 pm
Exactly. The crew is on a mission to destroy unstable planets in solar systems slated for colonization. They have a large stock of bombs, each able to destroy a planet. I don’t think they say whether they are nukes or some other super explosives. As they are preparing to release an armed bomb, there is a malfunction and it does not release. So, it’s sitting on the pylon counting down (happily convinced that it is about to do the job that it was designed for) and one of the crew has to go talk it out of detonating. I won’t spoil the rest for you.
September 10th, 2005 at 4:46 am
Hah! Sounds amusing, I’ll have to check the movie out, it’s a John Carpenter movie, right?
September 11th, 2005 at 11:17 pm
Yes:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069945/
September 15th, 2005 at 2:50 pm
I got it on DVD somewhere, come on back to Civilization and we can have a Dark Star party.
You are no longer in the craddle of civilization….More like crater of civilization.
September 15th, 2005 at 5:16 pm
Awesome! I’ll be trying to keep everybody up to date on when I expect to be passing through and how long I’ll be there.
September 16th, 2005 at 5:55 pm
I looking a little futher in that Facinating document I can across this (yes I was bored).
The section title got me hoping for something a little different then it really was about.
2.17. Military Working Dog Explosives.
Military Working Dog explosives training aids (including HC/D 1.1) may be transported and handled by qualified personnel in areas that provide realistic and effective training.
2.17.1. Preclude exposure of personnel not related to the training through prudent scheduling and selection of training sites. Post proper fire symbols at training sites.
2.17.2. Train using locally approved operating instructions. These instructions must include a documented post-training inventory of explosives samples ensuring no explosives are inadvertently left at the training site or discarded.
2.17.3. Inform the installation safety office, Fire Department, and EOD (if applicable) before conducting operations.
I cant wait to read to the dramatic conclusion!
peace and russian bomb dog grease
November 1st, 2006 at 8:35 am
Yep…
0 and 1. Now what could be so hard about that?
…