Here is another Fulton Story…….. During a “dry spill” of radioactive material, the direction from Naval Reactors was that any contaminated individual should proceed to the nearest control point, where the person would be undressed and “frisked” to see if they had received any contamination in their skin. In early 1986, that guidance changed. The new guidance was that any individuals should remove their clothing right at the site of the dry spill AND THEN proceed to the nearest control point to get frisked. This way the amount of contamination spread was significantly reduced making the job of containing the spill easier. Well… to “sink” that new policy change the drill team conducted a few dry spill drills. In each case, the RADCON Officer would immediately go to the scene and direct the contaminated individual to immediately proceed to the nearest control point (old guidance). This resulted in the drill being evaluated as UNSAT, and Captain Hartmann getting more and more frustrated. Finally, on a Tuesday morning we do the same drill again, and the RADCON Officer does the same thing, sends the contaminated man to the nearest control point. Captain Hartmann, who was in the Machine Shop where the “spill” had occurred, immediately puts a stop to the drills, calls it UNSAT and tells us we were going to re-do it at 1300. He also grabbed the Repair Officer and RADCON Officer and took them to his cabin to “chat”. So here we are at 1300, and we have one of our RADCON Shift Supervisors, MM1 Ferguson, and a BIG guy at 6’3 or so, carrying the vacuum cleaner that will be the source of the spill to the machine shop. A couple of minutes later we hear the 1MC announcement of “Dry Spill in the Machine Shop”, so the RADCON Officer and I grab clear view gas masks, put them on, and proceed to the scene. When we get there, we find MM1 Ferguson with the dropped vacuum cleaner and white talcum powder around him. We also find Captain Hartmann in his working khakis with a green submarine sweater and ball cap watching the drill. As always, the RADCON Officer immediately tells MM1 Ferguson to proceed to the control point. At that point, and at the top of his lungs Capt. Hartmann yells “No. Ferguson – Stop”. Ferguson stops and looks at the Captain who then tells Ferguson “PO Ferguson – Drop your pants”… Ferguson, with a terrified look in his face, drops his pants… luckily for everyone he is wearing underwear…. Captain Hartmann then yells at Ferguson to go to the control point to be decontaminated. As Ferguson leaves, the Captain starts yelling at myself and the RADCON Officer about how this situation should be handled, but as he is yelling at us, he removes his shoes and throws them against the R-2 Office door, then he pulls his submarine sweater off, and as he continues to yell at us, he proceeds to undress himself to just his socks, skivvies and T-shirt. All the time yelling at us and poking the RADCON Officer on his chest. Both the RADCON Officer and I are trying not to laugh since we know that would be immediate death for us. Once the skipper gets to his underwear, he goes collect all his stuff, tells another drill monitor that was nearby to tell DC Central to secure from the drill and proceeds forward to the hatch to the mess decks on the starboard side. As he opens it, the Repair Officer (CDR Whaley) is there. The Captain looks at the RO and goes “You and the RADCON Officer – in my cabin – NOW” and stomps off in his underwear. The RO walks in and sees myself and the RADCON Officer laughing our heads off, and just looks at us and goes “What the Hell you did to the Captain “……….
Posted on: Fri, 18 Apr 2014 12:47:32 +0000
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