With the war going on and seeing all the aircraft carriers we have over there, sent me back quite a few years and it got me thinking about something. I know things have changed a LOT since my tour of duty but I wonder how much? Two things that still haunt me about being deployed overseas was the way we were forced to dispose of garbage and such. I know when under way, ALL the garbage went over the side EXCEPT paper, everything else got thrown off the fantail at night and something I'm REALLY not proud of was the oil and hydraulic fluids that we DUMPED into the ocean. 100's of 1000's of gallons of used oil and HF went into 55 gal drums, when full, we rolled them to the hangar bay doors, punched holes in the top and overboard they went, I cannot tell you HOW many drums of this stuff we dumped. I worked on all the equip that's used to support aircraft, tow tractors etc, the Navy has some pretty strict maintenance policies on equip. we changed oil on these pieces of equip every 15 hours of use so you can IMAGINE how much oil we used.
Dennis :o
Thinking back
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azsnowman
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Thinking back
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I would hope that the navy has changed their practices. However I wouldn't lose any sleep over it because nature has a way of taking care of this. In time, these products will degrade and dissipate from sunlight, evaporation, and even some kinds of bacteria will consume it. Out on the high seas, this amount is negligible. Oil spills near land are catastrophic because its a large concentrated amount in a relatively small area. Hopefully now that we are enlightened, the navy will be more conscious of this. It should be possible to recycle these fluids. Maybe recycled hydraulic fluid could be used in other equipment like construction equipment, if it would be unacceptable for aircraft, etc. At least they could use it for heating fuel or to make steam to get two uses out of it. If the ship has space to bring full drums of fresh fluids, it would take the same amount of space to store the drums of spent fluid on the way back.
As for garbage, much of that is biodegradable too, except of course plastics. Heck, even sewage readilly degrades in nature. Sewage treatment plants use biological activity to consume the nasty stuff. On land, the problem is the concentrated nature of the stuff. Out on the high seas, it would be dissipated and consumed by bacteria and algae within days. There's more fish poop out there than people poop.
As for garbage, much of that is biodegradable too, except of course plastics. Heck, even sewage readilly degrades in nature. Sewage treatment plants use biological activity to consume the nasty stuff. On land, the problem is the concentrated nature of the stuff. Out on the high seas, it would be dissipated and consumed by bacteria and algae within days. There's more fish poop out there than people poop.
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This space for rent.
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azsnowman
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Yeah, your right, it was just a shock to see SOOOO much stuff go overboard, especially when you consider how many carriers there are in the fleet not to mention the destroyers and such! What REALLY got me was when we pulled out the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, we were no more than 10 miles out to sea when they opened up the fantail for garbage detail, we had been in St. Thomas for over a week and the trash had piled up on the fantail, talk about TRASH, well heck, a carrier when fully deployed has over 5000+ men aboard, I know how much trash I produce now and there is just 2 of us in the house!
Dennis
Dennis
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azskyman
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Lucky Nuygen Ban!
While you were busy doing your part for the environment (war rules can be different than non-war rules), we in Camp McDermott, Nha Trang, Vietnam, had a lucky soul named Nuygen Ban who would faithfully show up for work every day with a wonderful black-tooth grin on his face and proceed with the "duty" of his day.
His assignment?
To roll the 16 half barrels of human waste from beneath our outdoor latrine, empty and spread that wonderful product on a drying screen directly behind the "thrones" at daybreak, and then wait patiently for it to dry enough to compost it in a neatly configured shape by day's end. (No, he did not make President's faces as artwork)
He took great pride in constructing three compost piles so that by the third day of drying, he would incinerate it in kerosene and then prepare the remaining charred residue for its proper burial about 50 yards away.
We often bowed and nodded in appreciation to Nuygen Ban, but never, oh never, did we shake hands in a gesture of gratitude.
Nor do I think that his small bag of rice and fish, the one he consumed with his hands at lunch every day, was ever a target for theft....even by the hungriest among us.
But happy he was..and proud to be helping the American cause.
We used to jokingly remark that smiley old Nuygen Ban took more sh** from us Americans than did all the rest of the enemy combined.
Must have been a sad day for him when we closed up the camp and he was forced to retire. (So glad I still have a color slide of him doing God's work in the war zone!)
PS. I once flew with a Major on a Huey to the hamlet of Ban Me Thuot in the central highlands of Vietnam...and even briefly into Cambodia later that day. When the business was done, we were allowed to use the pride of company, a flush toilet located INSIDE an actual building. When Vietnam fell in '75, one of the first places to fall to the north Vietnamese was Ban Me Thuout. I always thought that their desire to control that important "waterway" was why they chose that target so early in the last days.
His assignment?
To roll the 16 half barrels of human waste from beneath our outdoor latrine, empty and spread that wonderful product on a drying screen directly behind the "thrones" at daybreak, and then wait patiently for it to dry enough to compost it in a neatly configured shape by day's end. (No, he did not make President's faces as artwork)
He took great pride in constructing three compost piles so that by the third day of drying, he would incinerate it in kerosene and then prepare the remaining charred residue for its proper burial about 50 yards away.
We often bowed and nodded in appreciation to Nuygen Ban, but never, oh never, did we shake hands in a gesture of gratitude.
Nor do I think that his small bag of rice and fish, the one he consumed with his hands at lunch every day, was ever a target for theft....even by the hungriest among us.
But happy he was..and proud to be helping the American cause.
We used to jokingly remark that smiley old Nuygen Ban took more sh** from us Americans than did all the rest of the enemy combined.
Must have been a sad day for him when we closed up the camp and he was forced to retire. (So glad I still have a color slide of him doing God's work in the war zone!)
PS. I once flew with a Major on a Huey to the hamlet of Ban Me Thuot in the central highlands of Vietnam...and even briefly into Cambodia later that day. When the business was done, we were allowed to use the pride of company, a flush toilet located INSIDE an actual building. When Vietnam fell in '75, one of the first places to fall to the north Vietnamese was Ban Me Thuout. I always thought that their desire to control that important "waterway" was why they chose that target so early in the last days.
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