Stairs or Ladders
One of the great things about joining the military is the anticipation of adventure, excitement and danger. Throughout basic training and your trade qualification course, you’re instructed on how to face unknown and incredible problems. With your new and unique set of skills you’re then posted to your first base....where you end up pushing a broom for the next 6 months.
That’s not to say this is the case for everyone, but I’m willing to bet that most have lived this experience to some extent.
Believe it or not though this leads to some pretty creative thinking and ingenious ways to help pass the time and take care of mundane jobs. I remember when I was posted to 2 Field Ambulance, several Corporals took us new guys under their wings. They showed us how to hide in the cam nets to take a nap, or that we should always carry a clipboard. The logic of the clipboard being that you will be assumed to be busy and will inevitably be left alone. Why else would a person carry one?
The less desirable, but not unexpected outcome of creative solutions to mundane problems, are shortcuts, which sometimes come at the expense of adhering to proper safety procedures. This is why the CAF has standard operating procedures (SOP’s), to help prevent shortcuts. Follow the steps in the protocol and your task should be completed successfully and without catastrophe. There is an SOP for everything nowadays, in fact there are SOP’s for SOP's, but if I’m honest, it has gotten a bit out of hand and stifles initiative and ingenuity.
But no SOP’s were adhered to in the story you are about to read below. It was sent in by MWO (ret) Douglas Bannerman who has supplied several other great stories that have been shared on the blog already. It is a classic example of troops doing what they do best; getting the job done, as efficiently as possible where the end justifies the means, especially if no one gets hurt.
I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.
All the best,
John
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Lahr telephone crew mid 70s.
We were tasked to install four FM Motorola antennas on the roof of the centre marguerite hanger.
Access to the roof of the three-story building was a narrow stairway at the back of the building doubling back three times with a small landing at each bend. Also, to approach the stairway, we had to pass through a labyrinth of temporary offices, vehicles, personnel, and equipment. Bringing our antennas, cable, kit, and tools was making our task hard to accomplish.
We had a brain fart and realized if we had a long ladder, we could just climb outside the building up from beside our truck, straight to the roof and complete the job quickly. We went back to the shop and found two 40ft ladders and happily returned to the centre marguerite. Since one ladder by itself wasn't long enough we decided, without any hesitation, to extend both ladders by overlapping them and tying them together with tie wraps.
Being very safety conscious, we used a couple of dozen tie wraps over 6 or 7 overlapped rungs, set the ladder up onto the side of the building and commenced to work.
Later that afternoon, our M/Cpl came by to see how we were doing and to inspect the quality of our work. Unfortunately, by the time he came around, due to the amount of times we went up and down the ladders with all the equipment, the tie wraps had stretched a bit (3 inches to be exact) and the ladders were a wee bit wobbly.
Up on the roof, all we heard was the M/Cpl asking us in a loud, incredulous voice if we were born stupid or did we study hard to become stupid. We naturally acknowledged the negative and began to descend the ladder to see what had made him ask such a question. His voice then raised by a couple of octaves while he reiterated his opinion that we had the brain power of a bag of rocks and to come down by using the stairway. We complied and were given a half hour, one way, safety briefing on proper ladder use and common sense. Unfortunately, we still had to bring the 20ft masts up to the roof, so the task took two extra days bringing them up that stupid, tortuous stairway.
Douglas Bannerman, MWO (ret)