Exploding Latrine 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
During the last half of the 1980's I was stationed at Pope AFB in North Carolina in an Engineering Squadron. As an engineering outfit one of our "war time" tasks was to be able build a tent city in the field to support several hundred troops. We practiced this often. One of the needed facilities, of course is a latrine. For the proposed number of people it had to be a large one and were usually quite elaborate plywood structures. After the field training we would dig a large hole and bury the wood, as it couldn't be used again for sanitation reasons.
During one such exercises the structures people built an even larger unit. At the end of the exercise a large hole was dug behind it with a back hoe and it was pushed into the hole. After it went into the hole the Master Sergeant in charge of the detail realized there was too much wood in the hole to bury easily. There were at least 10 full sheets of plywood and lots of 2X4's. The Sergeant got permission to burn the wood before burying it. He sent an Airman to get some diesel fuel , but all that was left of the fuel supply was a 5 gallon can of gas. The Sergeant decided it was "OK" and dumped the entire 5 gallons on the pile of wood down in the hole. He pulled out his trusty Zippo to light a piece of paper to throw into the pile. He spent about 5 minutes trying to get the lighter to light with no luck. Finally someone produced book of matches and he lit the paper. The entire detail of Airmen, about 6 or 8, and the Sergeant stood ringing the hole as he threw the burning paper into the hole, saying ominously "fire in the hole". And he wasn't kidding. When the flame hit the built up gas vapors under all that plywood...KABOOM....A fire ball went up about 30 feet in the air. Plywood and 2X4s went everywhere. Rolls of unused toilet paper flew up into the trees like party streamers. There were actually pieces of plywood and 2X4s stuck 50 feet up in the limbs of the pine trees.
All the airman had scattered, but the Sergeant still stood at the edge of the hole in exactly the same postion as he had been when he dropped the flame. His uniform was scorched, his eye brows were gone, and all he had to say was "whoops". We never laughed so hard in our lives, although our Commander didn't appreaciate the humor. No one died thankfully. I guess that Sergeant was wearing his water wings in the pool that day. Submitted on 05/24/2002
Submitted by:
Stan
Reference:
Personal observance/ Summer87
Copyright © 2002 DarwinAwards.com
|
