As normal, our battalion was out in the forest during an winter exercise. Our CO was established and we (the officers) was taking our watch duties as normal. Waiting for news by th communication centre.

With us, we also had a new "holy man", a priest (with rank captain). His rank he got from his title, not from his army school or experience.

During the 4th night this "holy man" was a little bit tired of doing nothing, so he told the rest of us that he would take a watch during the night. Ehh, ok!!

Then comes the clue. As most people understand, there might get cold in nothern Norway during winter. So this night, app -25C. To keep the CO tent warm, we use diesel air-heaters.

Of course this heater went dry during the "holy mans" watch. And since the "holy men" is nice persons, they doesnt wake up even a private to get the heater up and go again. With his connections to the chief up there, he will fix it.

So the "holy man" went out, and he found a can with 20 l diesel. Ok - so how to fill the heater? Since it is not only cold in the winters in nothern Norway, but also dark, he couldnt find any place to pour the diesel. After a little bit searching, he found a "pipe" pointing straight to his "boss" up there.

And he poured the hole 20 l diesel into this "pipe". No result the first 30 sec - but a lot of smoke from diesel damp.

A little spark from the heater then made the whole heater to blow straight up to the "holy mans" boss, while the "holy man" himself thought the bad guy was angry at him. The heater was exploding, and the tent burned down.

Of course the rest of us was awake pretty quick. I ran to the explosion site, and found the "holy man" with no hair, no eyebrows, smelling pretty bad, and with a pretty shocking expression in his face. We wondered what happend, and the "holy man" told us the way he tried to make us warm the day after - from the hospital.

I'm not sure if this "holy man" will try more to get in touch with the bad guy down there, but at least he confirmed that it is really a hot place ;-)

Submitted on 01/09/2006

Submitted by: Anonymous
Reference:

Copyright © 2006 DarwinAwards.com

Greg said:
Maybe Toss: Other
I don't know enough about these heaters - I'm not sure what happened here. Doesn't sound especially dumb, except he should've asked for help. I don't know.

James said:
Neutral: Personal Account
An amusing story...something like this nearly happened on my watch (US Naval reserve, 1996) when I turned to see one of my troops trying to revive a dead coal fire by pouring a cupful of gasoline onto the embers. He nearly burnt the tent down, but I helped him put out all the little fires (thankfully, the "floor" was dirt!). The Chaplain probably poured the fuel down an air intake where it was heated and eventually ignited. Believable enough for me!

Jack said:
Neutral: Personal Account
Don't know what kind of heater the Norwegian Army uses, but some of the U.S. Army ones are pretty tricky if you don't know what you're doing. Which this "sky pilot" obviously didn't. Humorous enough for a PA.

Jorge said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account

Charles said:
Neutral: Personal Account
I would like to see a bit of copy-editing on this account; the English limps a little. Do you suppose he tried to pour the diesel down an exhaust pipe?

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