Storm Troopers in Boston

[Hmac]

I was flying squad on the USS Midway. Everyone on board had to go through advanced firefighting school before attaching. We had a few idiots, but overall everyone was extremely professional and well trained when it came to DC. We had to deal with a casualty of some kind every 3 or 4 days at sea. When I was back in the states on leave for the first time in over 2 years, there was a catapult steam explosion that hit the flying squad while responding to report of a steam leak. My relief was one of the guys that was killed, and that messed with me for a good while afterward.

People that advocate running headlong into harms way without a plan, training, or proper equipment thinking that it'll result in anything other than their death or injury simply have no idea what they're talking about. I know most guys grow up with a juvenile fantasy of being a hero at some point in their life, but actual heroes rarely ever emerge spontaneously or by accident, but from hundreds or thousands of hours of training and sacrifice. And even then many end up paying for that title with their lives. The majority of people who choose to do this work in spite of the risks involved don't do it for a title, but out of a sense of duty to their fellow man. This includes those in law enforcement who go into harms way when the bad thing happens so that the rest of us don't have to.

Nice post. Good to see some input from an adult with experience in the life-or-death arena to inject some reality into the discussion.

I toured the Midway a year or two ago in San Diego. What a great old ship.

[jshuberg]

Re. your other post... High Pressure Steam is certainly not to be taken lightly.

No, it's one of the worst type of casualties that can happen on a ship. The aircraft catapult is a basically a giant steam piston that's capable of accelerating a 45,000 pound aircraft from 0-200 MPH in ~1 second. It's an incredible amount of power being released at once. When the steam line between the catapult and the accumulator ruptures, the explosive power is absolutely catastrophic. The explosion on the Midway really should have been a major news story when it happened, but the ship made an emergency inport into Yokosuka Japan without doing a BLUEBELLS weapons offload. This violated the nuclear arms treaty we have with the Japanese Govt, which I believe is why the news story got very little coverage.

I toured the Midway a year or two ago in San Diego. What a great old ship.

She was a great ship. I went back and toured the museum a couple years back, and was granted full access to the ship with an escort. I still had paperwork that I had worked on taped to the bulkhead, and my name was still on my rack. In certain spaces, there were still watch bills posted, and coffee cups left behind on desks that have remained untouched for more than 20 years. It was really very cool going back and visiting, but the cold iron engineering spaces with burned out lighting were kinda creepy...

[Josh189]

I guess I was wrong to think that I was talking to people that care about others. In my post I've heard about getting medals for talking, doing things by the book, having been called a child, told not to be a problem for second responders and , hearing that not having a plan is being stupid and all this is in defense of police wearing gear to protect themselves when seconds count. I fear the public has taken my fireman analogy a little too literal. Thank you for all your wisdom...

[tman]

I guess I was wrong to think that I was talking to people that care about others. In my post I've heard about getting medals for talking, doing things by the book, having been called a child, told not to be a problem for second responders and , hearing that not having a plan is being stupid and all this is in defense of police wearing gear to protect themselves when seconds count. I fear the public has taken my fireman analogy a little too literal. Thank you for all your wisdom...

Dead responders are of NO USE to anyone, silly.

[bstrawse]

People that advocate running headlong into harms way without a plan, training, or proper equipment thinking that it'll result in anything other than their death or injury simply have no idea what they're talking about. I know most guys grow up with a juvenile fantasy of being a hero at some point in their life, but actual heroes rarely ever emerge spontaneously or by accident, but from hundreds or thousands of hours of training and sacrifice. And even then many end up paying for that title with their lives. The majority of people who choose to do this work in spite of the risks involved don't do it for a title, but out of a sense of duty to their fellow man. This includes those in law enforcement who go into harms way when the bad thing happens so that the rest of us don't have to.

To quote a now-deceased emergency manager that I had great respect for: "Emergency Management is not an effing pick-up game."

Running headlong into stuff without thinking gets people killed - often yourself.

Thank you for your service, I did not know you had served in the Navy.
b

[Nougat]

so premiering soon on tnt after a show called Bostons Finest is http://mobile.broadcastingcable.com/art ... heimer.php . I just saw the commercial announcing it, they dropped the Texas part.


Sorry if this was too old to bump and I should have made a new thread but this seemed like the right place