Have I Ever Told You Some Of ...........
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... many bizarre stories I have from my Navy days?Don't rightly know why this one popped into my head just now, but here it goes.*Turn down your volume and press play. Then turn up the volume until you can just hear the sound. Then read.*
I started in the service thinking I was going to be a Cryptologist. Along side of Radiomen, Cryptologist receive and decode communications from many places. As you can imagine, this job was under top secret classification rules, and as such my lousy bank account kept me from the job I had signed on for. So the Government gave me the next best thing, they made me a boatswain mate. If you don't already know boatswain is pronounced "bo'sun". Just one of the many quirks of the English language (ya taking notes there Mick. You'll have one up on your friends when they try to pronounce that one.) Well anyway us "deck apes" had a bunch of uninteresting jobs to do.
One of them was to "needle gun" the hull and superstucture. This just meant to chip off old paint so a fresh coat could be applied. Here's a pic of someone doing that job, mind you, I would be wearing the same get - up were I doing it:
Needle guns are these air powered, hand-held, jack hammers. They have around 30 steel pins (about twice the size of a coat hanger wire) bunched into a circle. They oscillate when you pull the trigger. When used to chip the 2 part epoxy paint from the side of a ship, they send up a shower, yes I mean shower of grey colored plastic into the air in front of you. The sound is really like a kinder and gentler jack hammer but it's beating against great big sheets of steel and aluminium. TATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATTATATAEven through the "monkey ears" you heard the noise. TATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATANow this is the bizarre part. Being so up close and personal with that needle gun actually put me to sleep. Guess my brain learned how to filter that drone and allowed me to nod off. I eventually learned how to sleep with a needle gun in my hand, which was great 'cause with the hours I kept shooting pool at "Mag's":http://www.magnoliasteak.com/, I could catch up on my rest later during working hours. Your tax dollars at work.I guess now is a good time for you to turn up the volume (if you can), and give a listen to what your really hearing. Then check out what my 2nd favorite band does with the idea.
I started in the service thinking I was going to be a Cryptologist. Along side of Radiomen, Cryptologist receive and decode communications from many places. As you can imagine, this job was under top secret classification rules, and as such my lousy bank account kept me from the job I had signed on for. So the Government gave me the next best thing, they made me a boatswain mate. If you don't already know boatswain is pronounced "bo'sun". Just one of the many quirks of the English language (ya taking notes there Mick. You'll have one up on your friends when they try to pronounce that one.) Well anyway us "deck apes" had a bunch of uninteresting jobs to do.
One of them was to "needle gun" the hull and superstucture. This just meant to chip off old paint so a fresh coat could be applied. Here's a pic of someone doing that job, mind you, I would be wearing the same get - up were I doing it:
Needle guns are these air powered, hand-held, jack hammers. They have around 30 steel pins (about twice the size of a coat hanger wire) bunched into a circle. They oscillate when you pull the trigger. When used to chip the 2 part epoxy paint from the side of a ship, they send up a shower, yes I mean shower of grey colored plastic into the air in front of you. The sound is really like a kinder and gentler jack hammer but it's beating against great big sheets of steel and aluminium. TATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATTATATAEven through the "monkey ears" you heard the noise. TATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATANow this is the bizarre part. Being so up close and personal with that needle gun actually put me to sleep. Guess my brain learned how to filter that drone and allowed me to nod off. I eventually learned how to sleep with a needle gun in my hand, which was great 'cause with the hours I kept shooting pool at "Mag's":http://www.magnoliasteak.com/, I could catch up on my rest later during working hours. Your tax dollars at work.I guess now is a good time for you to turn up the volume (if you can), and give a listen to what your really hearing. Then check out what my 2nd favorite band does with the idea.
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