OUCH, OUCH, OUCH, OUCH.

It’s funny the things that can stick in your brain.  I learned a lot of stuff at a rapid pace back during my baby Nuke time in the Navy.  Some of it stuck, some of it didn’t.

One of the things that stuck better than most was a story we were told about while learning about air compressor safety. In this particular lecture, our instructor was talking about a guy he knew that suspected he had a leak from one of the fittings in the 100psi air system.  The chucklehead was looking for the air leak by running his fingers over the different tubing and fittings on the air compressor.  Well, he found the leak with his fingers also…

The picture our instructor painted was quite graphic and horrific, which probably explains why it is still rattling around in my brain while many other things have moved on.  The 1000# air punched through the skin on this guys finger, and quick as you please, worked its way up his arm, separating the skin from his muscles, inflating his arm like a balloon. 

Right then and there I was convinced to follow his guidance and use a sheet of paper to look for pin hole leaks in air systems.  I was also convinced that what I had heard was a ‘sea story’…but it was an effective sea story, because I was well and truly trained. 

Now this morning, I find this story about a gentleman who slipped off his semi-truck in New Zealand, fell, and broke the tubing off his trucks 100# compressed air tank.  For good measure, he had that broken tubing penetrate his buttocks, where it proceeded to inflate him like a balloon. 

I sat at my computer slack-jawed for about 5 minutes this morning after reading this.  Man, am I glad A-gang took care of the HPAC’s back on the Seawolf.

The worst part of the story is the quote at the end:

McCormack said his skin felt "like a pork roast" - crackling on the outside but soft underneath.

Guess I’m not eating pork for a few days.