Work-related folklore...

[SSgtBaloo]

I found the following article at the Urban Legends Reference Pages.

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/techno/radar.htm

The story in the article reminded me of the “war stories” our instructors would regale us with in Tech school. One in particular comes to mind:

Shortly after the Security Police (SPs) were issued new, hand-held radar units to enforce the speed limits on base, a B-52 had to make an emergency landing due to engine trouble. Since it was carrying nukes (nuclear weapons), the Security Police had to provide a 24-hour guard on the plane until it was repaired. No-one could work on it without an escort with the proper security clearance (almost everything about a nuclear-armed aircraft is a closely-guarded secret).

The plane was finally repaired and while it was taking off, one of the SPs happened to be parked near the end of the runway. He was curious, and decided to use his brand-new “toy” to see what the take-off speed of a fully-loaded B-52 happened to be.

The EWO (Electronic Warfare Officer) spotted the police radar on his scope. Realizing what was happening, he decided that this constituted a security violation, as a nuclear-armed aircraft’s capabilities are classified. He tuned his (rather powerful) spot-jammer to the SP’s frequency and momentarily pressed the transmit button. The SP’s signal dropped off the scope, and he thought nothing more of it.

Meanwhile, on the ground, the SP noticed a wisp of smoke issuing forth from his radar gun, and that the speed readout had stopped working. When he turned it in for repair, they discovered that the circuitry had been overloaded by a very strong signal, requiring the entire unit to be replaced. Further investigation revealed how the radar gun had come to grief, and the SP was disciplined for abusing government property and required to reimburse the Air Force for the cost of a new radar gun.

I don’t know if it’s true, but I do know that a jamming unit has quite a bit more power than a hand-held radar gun, and that the fragile circuitry of the day might have been fried by a too-strong signal from an external source.

Whether it was true or not, it did serve as a good example of why one ought not screw around on the job.

I was wondering if anyone else might have a work-related bit of folklore to share?

~~Baloo

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

You mean aside from the usual “Taco Bell employees spitting in the burritos” / “hypodermic needles in the McDonalds ballpit” stories?

True story: I have a friend who knows a woman who used to work at a potato chip factory, and who used to put notes saying “Help me, I’m being held prisoner at the Kelly Potato Chip plant” into the bags as they went past her on the sealing line, and who was eventually fired for it.

She now works for the U.S. Postal Service.

[SSgtBaloo]

OOOOOOOOoooooooooooo!

Scary!

[Feynman]

The Dilbert web site.

[Johnny_L.A]

My late father told me about when he worked at a Naval radar installation. He said they’d occasionally get nosey reporters hanging around (this was in the day of flashbulbs). They’d turn the radar on the hapless victim and send a pulse that would cause all of his flashbulbs to go off.

He also told me about a man who was working on an aircraft (F-4U Corsair or AD-5 Skyraider during the Korean conflict) who stepped over the fuselage instead of climbing down the ladder and up the one on the other side. As his crotch was atop the antenna (which ran from the cockpit to the tail), the man in the cockpit happened to key the microphone resulting in an injury to the man on the fuselage.

I can believe the rarad story, but I’m not sure about the “antenna burns” one. Does anyone know if an aircraft antenna (c.1952) could put out that much power?

Never experienced this one, but there’s “The Phantom Shitter”…