ATTABOY! On Wed, Dec 10, 2014 at 9:07 AM, WILTON via Mercedes <mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote:
> Yep, another one; not many left. ;<) > > FLYING MOWER BLADES > By Wilton Strickland > > (The reader may wonder how this little story has anything to do with > BUFFs. It is merely another small insight into the total picture of being > in the BUFF. For about thirty-five years, from 1957 until the collapse of > the Soviet Union in the early ‘90‘s, nearly a third of a BUFF crewman’s > time was spent on ground alert. Though crewmen could travel short > distances on base for short periods to certain facilities with alert > warning devices (klaxons), most of a crewman’s time on alert - usually, a > week each alert tour - was spent in and around the alert facility. These > crew living facilities were operated and maintained twenty-four hours a > day, seven days a week, for the duration of Strategic Air Command’s alert > commitment.) > On several occasions in 1980 or ‘81, I overheard the B-52 alert > facility manager at Seymour Johnson AFB, NC, mention that they were having > a hard time keeping the grass around the facility cut because the blades > kept coming off the mower. At first, I didn’t pay any attention to these > comments, because it wasn’t my business, and I was concerned about other > stuff - B-52 mission stuff. > One day, though, while I was at the alert facility to brief crews on > an upcoming exercise, I overheard the alert manager mention that they were > having to send the mower back to maintenance again because the blades had > come off, it finally registered with me - if the blades were coming off, > they must be turning backward and unscrewing the mounting nuts on the ends > of the blade shafts. I had seen the mower sitting in the grass by the > building on my way in from the parking lot. > Without saying anything else to anyone, I went outside to the mower > and looked under it at a blade that was still attached. Immediately, I > could see that the backside (normally the trailing edge of the blade) was > bright and shiny - the blades were, indeed, turning backward! I noted that > one could easily install the belt from the engine to the main blade drive > pulley in a manner to make the blades turn the wrong direction - just put > the belt on with a twist to turn the drive pulley the opposite direction > from that intended. Several days earlier, a mechanic had put a new belt on > in a manner that turned the blades backward and had been doing so for quite > some time. > I went back in the building and asked the facilities manager to go > outside to the mower with me for a couple of minutes. He was glad to learn > that the solution to the frustrating and long-running mower problem was so > simple. > > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > All posts are the result of individual contributors and as such, those > individuals are responsible for the content of the post. The list owner > has no control over the content of the messages of each contributor. > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com All posts are the result of individual contributors and as such, those individuals are responsible for the content of the post. The list owner has no control over the content of the messages of each contributor.
