Location , location, location.

[fixthecopier]

My driver told me about dropping off a rental to a contractor in the middle of nowhere on base a couple of weeks ago. I didn't think much of it til I got a call on it. I ask for directions from the instal.

Go out the base gate, keep driving until you get to the lake [this is nothing but pine forest]. Go past the lake a couple of miles and look for right turn that used to be paved, but turns into dirt. Turn right. Go about one and a half miles and it will be on the right.

I turn right and am greeted by an authorized personnel only sign with large 50 cal holes shot through it. I drive down this dirt road for a mile and and a half, then 2 miles, then I stop. Now the signs have changed. Signs on both sides are now telling me I am in an impact range, a place where live fire drills were conducted. Having lived here all my life I take it seriously. I called again to check my directions and they were verified. I sat and thought about going further, then finally saw a truck come off a tank trail and followed him to the site. POC said every contractor that comes out there has the same issue when they get to the signs.

Any calls you spider sense told you to be wary of?

[gneebore]

Re: Location , location, location.

Not quite as bad but a long time ago I had to repair some equipment for the "Scared Straight" program at Rahway State prison. Not a lot of fun when the inmates are drooling over the nice sharp screwdrivers in your tool case when you are working on the equipment.
That and Trenton State Hospital had three IBM typewriters available for the patients to use. One day they "forgot" to lock away a rather strange woman who thought every male not in hospital srubs was her deceased husband. Of course she saw me walking in to repair the typewriters in the common area, away from the cells for dangerous patients. And latched on to my arm with a death grip that took sedatives to make her release me.

[KapeKopyTek]

Re: Location , location, location.

Any home office.

[allan]

Re: Location , location, location.

Working inside a nuclear test plant (for doctoring silicone). First you get Geiger tested before entering and exiting and you need to suit up. You get bit of a safety talk and a warning not to touch or to put anything on the floor or walls for that object would be considered contaminated. Then you get a 400mm x 400mm table next to the machine to work on. Now you already have your tool bag in one hand and parts in the other hand. Its a bit of a juggle not to drop anything.

[Iowatech]

Re: Location , location, location.

Signs on both sides are now telling me I am in an impact range, a place where live fire drills were conducted.

Crap, an impact area is no place to be without express permission from Range Control. Then again, it sounds a little like the machine might have been located at a Range Control facility - during the time I was probably in the Reserves I heard myths and rumors about those.

[blackcat4866]

Re: Location , location, location.

Early in my career I rode along on a delivery of a demo of a console copier. This was before everybody carried pagers and cellphones and smartphones. The building had some windows, but most were broken out through the security bars. It was not exactly the worst part of town, but you wouldn't want to loiter after dark. We carried the machine down a flight of metal stairs to the basement. I thought that if it was my company, I wouldn't be leaving demo equipment here, not without a 100% deposit. =^..^=

[jonhiker]

Re: Location , location, location.

I was repairing a machine in a local mental hospital at a nurses station. A not very small and rather irritated gentleman started walking thru the area, talking loudly and knocking over chairs. My escort grabbed me and hustled me in the other direction to an elevator. I thought he was going to break the down button!

[fixthecopier]

Re: Location , location, location.

Crap, an impact area is no place to be without express permission from Range Control. Then again, it sounds a little like the machine might have been located at a Range Control facility - during the time I was probably in the Reserves I heard myths and rumors about those.

I doubt they were myths. Ft. Bragg is huge. I am pretty sure there are over 50 live fire ranges all the way up to the big guns that shake my home 15 miles away. The area I was at was most likely an older area used back in the 50's or 60's. Still, unexploded rounds are everywhere. The dirt roads I was on are a spider web of roads that go through all of the center of these ranges. I have been all through them, but I read the signs. On some of these big gun impact ranges, you may see old trucks and cars. They were not put there by the Army. Have been many cases of civilians going out there and riding around where they should not be, get stuck then find out that the MP's nor any tow truck will go out there. It becomes property of the Army, then target practice. About 2 years ago 2 range control people were killed when they tried to cut through one of the areas, even thought they knew better, and drove through a live fire fight.

As for the contractor, I don't know who they are, or what they do, I have learned not to ask questions. My customers like it that way. One of them even made me sign papers saying, they don't exist, I was never there, don't ask questions, don't notice anything, don't look around ect.ect.

[Iowatech]

Re: Location , location, location.

I doubt they were myths. Ft. Bragg is huge. I am pretty sure there are over 50 live fire ranges all the way up to the big guns that shake my home 15 miles away. The area I was at was most likely an older area used back in the 50's or 60's. Still, unexploded rounds are everywhere. The dirt roads I was on are a spider web of roads that go through all of the center of these ranges. I have been all through them, but I read the signs. On some of these big gun impact ranges, you may see old trucks and cars. They were not put there by the Army. Have been many cases of civilians going out there and riding around where they should not be, get stuck then find out that the MP's nor any tow truck will go out there. It becomes property of the Army, then target practice. About 2 years ago 2 range control people were killed when they tried to cut through one of the areas, even thought they knew better, and drove through a live fire fight.

As for the contractor, I don't know who they are, or what they do, I have learned not to ask questions. My customers like it that way. One of them even made me sign papers saying, they don't exist, I was never there, don't ask questions, don't notice anything, don't look around ect.ect.

I suppose I may have seen something like the dirt trails you speak of at FT. McCoy, a Guard/Reserve base in central Wisconsin. Those trails weren't usually as bad as the ones you describe though, at least when in a deuce and a half or a five ton wrecker, unless the trail intersected with a curve on a tank trail, the front axle on the deuce wasn't live, the deuce was towing a 60K generator, and it's the first night convoy drive with blackout lights. Then it might get a little dicey, and I may have lost a perfectly good pair of underwear at that time.

[fixthecopier]

Re: Location , location, location.

I suppose I may have seen something like the dirt trails you speak of at FT. McCoy, a Guard/Reserve base in central Wisconsin. Those trails weren't usually as bad as the ones you describe though, at least when in a deuce and a half or a five ton wrecker, unless the trail intersected with a curve on a tank trail, the front axle on the deuce wasn't live, the deuce was towing a 60K generator, and it's the first night convoy drive with blackout lights. Then it might get a little dicey, and I may have lost a perfectly good pair of underwear at that time.

I actually got my truck buried going to a call. This part of the state is called the sand hills for good reason. A unit from Germany was over to do a live fire artillery exercise. They had rented a machine from us and called a work order in. The poc gave me directions that took me through those dirt roads right through the middle of the ranges. After 20 minutes of driving roads made for tanks and Hummers, I rounded a corner and hit a sand bar and buried my truck. Got out and walked about a mile or so til I saw some troops in a Hummer and flagged them down. They pulled me out. When I got to the camp, it was 50 feet from the paved road that circumvents the ranges. I am pointing to the pavement and looking at the poc like WTF? He shrugged and said he had no idea where that road went, as they had been using the trails all week.

[Iowatech]

Re: Location , location, location.

I actually got my truck buried going to a call. This part of the state is called the sand hills for good reason. A unit from Germany was over to do a live fire artillery exercise. They had rented a machine from us and called a work order in. The poc gave me directions that took me through those dirt roads right through the middle of the ranges. After 20 minutes of driving roads made for tanks and Hummers, I rounded a corner and hit a sand bar and buried my truck. Got out and walked about a mile or so til I saw some troops in a Hummer and flagged them down. They pulled me out. When I got to the camp, it was 50 feet from the paved road that circumvents the ranges. I am pointing to the pavement and looking at the poc like WTF? He shrugged and said he had no idea where that road went, as they had been using the trails all week.

Um, I'm not sure I should have liked this, because it sounds like that sucked a lot, and in my case I was able to rock the deuce out of the sand then (although my codriver said I almost tipped the 60K over). Too late now, sorry.
The only time I've ever buried my work vehicle was in the snow after after finishing working on a machine at a rail yard. The snow filled up the tracks I made coming in to the place, and like a dummy I missed the road when I was leaving. That wasn't too bad though, they let me borrow a snow shovel to dig out the minivan I was driving at the time so I could get a good run back to the road, and a couple of guys gave the van a push to get the drive axle off the snow that was packed underneath it.

[DAG COPIERS & COMPUTERS]

Re: Location , location, location.

I believe 'fix the copier' is now hardened by those 'dangerous ' assignments, considering the nature of his customers.