Thursday, October 9, 2008
HOM: Basic Gas
I might as well mention gas masks. we had a fast class on them, using tear gas to drum the lesson in.
First there was the lecture, then the demonstration, then we were handed masks to adjust & put on.
Our watery eyes were the first clue of what was coming. The previous class had used these masks, and the gas hadn't had a chance to dissipate out of them yet.
We were marched in to little building, given a brief pep talk, and then immersed in a cloud of gas. The guys that hadn't fitted the masks properly found out what the gas was in seconds. The rest of us lost our smugness when we were all ordered to take off our masks.
Everyone gulped in and held as much filtered air as possible and obeyed. Best laid plans and all that, ya know . . . THAT is when the instructors ordered us to sing. Loudly. I guess the purpose was to teach us that gas was survivable and not to panic if exposed.
Getting out into fresh air after the class helped, but we were pretty bleary for the rest of the day.
Tear Gas: Been there, done that. Nope, don't want a second helping.
This may have been the same class where they introduced us to Atropine syrettes.
If exposed to nerve gas, you were supposed to jab yourself in the leg with one ASAP. I guess the medics carried syrettes loaded with morphine - same application, different results.
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Uniforms.
We had to maintain a spitshine on the toes of our Boondockers. We were issued dress shoes with our Blues & Whites and they had to be spitshined all over. Some of us invested in Corfam shoes that never needed shining, but I learned that their drawback was ferocious blistering if you had to walk far in them.
The new Dress uniforms came with a neckerchief and we were taught how to tie them properly. Once you got the knot looking right, you rarely untied it, just slipped it on & off.
We also had lessons on the use of clothes for survival - using pants as water wings, white hats as flotation devices, and blouses as protective covers to prevent flash burns. Supposedly we could do a turtle and get all of our exposed skin covered in case of nuclear attack by dropping flat and flipping the collar over our head.
One young genius asked what to do if caught at ground zero - right at the site of the explosion. He was told to bend way, way over, tuck his head between his legs, and then kiss his butt goodby.
I think it was the Navy that originated the expression "There is no such thing as a stupid question." They lied.
I had one dumb question on clothes - at the beginning of boot camp, when we were being taught how to fold our clothes, the instructor spent a bit of time on folding socks. Since he said to make sure they were right side out, I asked how to tell if those flimsy & sheer socks were wrong side to. Most of the guys thought it was funny, but Ellerbee got peeved and invited anyone who was positive his socks were right side out to step up. No takers, and I wasn't the only who was happy to learn what to look for.
TBC
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1 comments:
Gas training, and a couple of anecdotes. When we got to the gas chamber we all knew what we were in for. we were told we would go in, stand in it for a little while, and then remove our masks. We were also told this was our first chance to sing the Marine Corps hymn. They were right on both counts. of course very few of us made it past the first 2 lines. . . Second story. I have a friend who was an Ammo tech while in service and went over for a tour in the far east. He was stationed in Okinawa. the weather there as you recall is a touch on the warm side, and the humidity was as you quite properly described it "gross". one of the side affects of the heat over there, is the ammo tends to do odd things. He told me about one instance where the C.S. grenades had gone liquid, and were starting to cook off a little. He was the pour soul who happened to be walking by when one of them went off. I do not remember if he touched it, or it was spontaneous, but whatever the cause, he was covered with the crystals, not the gas. He told me for the first few hours he was blind, but that did not bother him so much as the sensation of burning that did not stop for over 3 days. Of course he never wanted to talk to that lady again. . . Of course as a result he found the gas no longer bothered him after that.
uniforms and the habits associated with them. Ties, to this day, I am still not able to tie a winsor knot (even after extensive assistance in learning it), so I went out and bought a clip on tie. The clip ons do not leave a convenient collar and leash for some one to grab a hold of if you need to move fast, and like your mobility. Of course the rest of the uniforms were always kept in a safe place where they would see neither rain nor shine, or experience any of the detriments brought on by them- my locker. Of course every day uniforms got folded and stowed in the dressers we used, but the dress uniforms never ventured out, unless it was an order. And even then, there were ways around getting into uniform.
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