Firstly, apologies if you read this on the Army site, in response to the q about wind-ups.
Were any of you guys running the fire-fighting training at Phoenix in the mid-1980s? The reason I ask is...
Firefighting training at HMS Phoenix, 1986.
I'd been in RN about 8 weeks or so and was a very green young Midshipman pilot student. Of course, Jack loves such people.
The firefighters tell us that we're going to make up our own extinguishers and go in to fight an oil fire. Now, it seemed to me that this fire-fighting stuff was fairly full-on, scary sh*t, but hey, what do I know - only been in two months, so shut up and get on with it. After all, they wouldn't risk an accident with a bunch of expensive aircrew people - would they?
So, they handed out 18 extinguisher casings, 18 CO2 charges, 18 trigger units and...14 cups of AFFF, the stuff that turns your water into a foam that will coat and suppress an oil fire.
"Right you tw*ts, four of you haven't taken your AFfF - own up, who is it?" says the Chief fireman supervising the exercise. Blank looks all round - everyone said they'd put theirs in (which they had - but they'd only handed out 14, not 18). "OK, if no-one will own up, we'll mix up your extinguishers and you'll use what you pick up".
Well I was lucky - me and my boys went in with AFFF. Into the compartment, full of diesel and rags on fire, like the inside of hell, spotted the fire source, hit the extinguisher, fire out, job done.
The last group got two of the extinguishers with water only. They sent a huge jet of water straight into a bucket of blazing diesel, which fireballed straight back onto them. The first one out of the compartment was the instructor, like RoadRunner on speed, followed by my mates, minus extinguishers.
A couple of years later, at RNAS Culdrose, a guy from the fire section told us that this training was all changed after some visiting Admiral saw it and had a fit. When we told him about the scam with the AFFF, he said this used to happen a lot when young pigs were in the hot seat.
Were any of you guys running the fire-fighting training at Phoenix in the mid-1980s? The reason I ask is...
Firefighting training at HMS Phoenix, 1986.
I'd been in RN about 8 weeks or so and was a very green young Midshipman pilot student. Of course, Jack loves such people.
The firefighters tell us that we're going to make up our own extinguishers and go in to fight an oil fire. Now, it seemed to me that this fire-fighting stuff was fairly full-on, scary sh*t, but hey, what do I know - only been in two months, so shut up and get on with it. After all, they wouldn't risk an accident with a bunch of expensive aircrew people - would they?
So, they handed out 18 extinguisher casings, 18 CO2 charges, 18 trigger units and...14 cups of AFFF, the stuff that turns your water into a foam that will coat and suppress an oil fire.
"Right you tw*ts, four of you haven't taken your AFfF - own up, who is it?" says the Chief fireman supervising the exercise. Blank looks all round - everyone said they'd put theirs in (which they had - but they'd only handed out 14, not 18). "OK, if no-one will own up, we'll mix up your extinguishers and you'll use what you pick up".
Well I was lucky - me and my boys went in with AFFF. Into the compartment, full of diesel and rags on fire, like the inside of hell, spotted the fire source, hit the extinguisher, fire out, job done.
The last group got two of the extinguishers with water only. They sent a huge jet of water straight into a bucket of blazing diesel, which fireballed straight back onto them. The first one out of the compartment was the instructor, like RoadRunner on speed, followed by my mates, minus extinguishers.
A couple of years later, at RNAS Culdrose, a guy from the fire section told us that this training was all changed after some visiting Admiral saw it and had a fit. When we told him about the scam with the AFFF, he said this used to happen a lot when young pigs were in the hot seat.
