4/12/2006: Ellsworth AFB foam test
 

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http://cellar.org/2006/foamtestone.jpg

How do you figure out whether a foam firefighting system in an air force hangar is set up correctly and works? Well you turn it on for a few seconds, to make sure it's got pressure and everything. First you set up a scaffolding so you can record the event and show the flow coming out of all nozzles.

http://backup.cellar.org/cellar/2006/foamtest2.jpg

And then you let 'er rip. After 15 seconds you can see foam is covering all areas it has to, so the test is successful. Shut 'er off.

http://backup.cellar.org/cellar/2006/foamtest3.jpg

Uh, guys? Shut 'er off?

http://backup.cellar.org/cellar/2006/foamtest4.jpg

Aw crap. Whatever was meant to shut off the system after 15 seconds, did NOT shut it off and the foam continued to flow. After a few minutes...

http://backup.cellar.org/cellar/2006/foamtest6.jpg

The foam is a story high and still flowing!

http://backup.cellar.org/cellar/2006/foamtest5.jpg

Uh, Joe? you can climb the scaffolding ladder now...

http://backup.cellar.org/cellar/2006/foamtest5b.jpg

Two stories high.

http://backup.cellar.org/cellar/2006/foamtest7.jpg

This is the guy standing on top of the scaffolding.

http://backup.cellar.org/cellar/2006/foamtest8.jpg

So they just let it go.

http://backup.cellar.org/cellar/2006/foamtest8b.jpg

http://backup.cellar.org/cellar/2006/foamtest9.jpg

Thanks to xoxoxoBruce for the initial set of photos and then I googled and found a great gallery at Strategypage.

That's what happens when you put too much soap in the washing machine.

And I'm going to have to put a movie I haven't seen in a few years into my netflix queue.

Awesome!!

I LOVE the bandwidth the Cellar has now. This is a great series of pictures.

Wouldn't you think there would be a manual shutoff valve somewhere? How long before this finally got shut down?

LLLLLLUUUUUUUCCCCCYYYYY!!!!

I wonder what sort of suffocation risk that foam poses. Foam + smoke/CO/CO2?

Next time they should have a DJ and some raver chix

Haaaahhahah... that's hilarious. I wonder how they'd clean it up though.

I'm seeing a new-millenium remake of "The Thrill of It All" with Doris Day and James Garner.

If you write the screenplay, be sure to give me credit for the original idea when you pick up your Oscar, m'kay?

mm, neat.. I bet if they jumped in it, it wouldn't make hitting the ground any softer.

"You said 15 SECONDS? Not minutes? Sorry, my bad."

It seems that they just ruined millions in B-1s.
By the way dar, from my days playing Half Life, I have learned that there most definitely is. You just have to battle aliens to get to it.

Cool.
Reminds me of soaping the fountains in my hometown. We only wished for this much foam.

Also: AMEN ON THE BANDWIDTH. I love it!

Kind of made me think of Lawrence Welk. "An a wun an a two an a tree..." :lol:

Wonder how they managed to clean up the mess?

They're lucky they didn't drown.

Very cool pics.

It ran out after about 18 minutes of bubbly goodness. :rolleyes:

You mean bubbly hell on earth.

Yes...it DOES look like snow !!!

Reminds me of an old Rolling Stones video where the band disappears in foam.

You would prolly be very uncomfortable but I really don't think you'd drown. Although if you are like me and are claustrophobic, you could die from a panic attack.

shiv, you sound like you're familiar with snow, and I'm sure canuck49 is.
Welcome to the Cellar, both of you. :D

Guess what folks? :D I was watching the referrers on this one, and someone had the full story.

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123019117

The article goes on to say that the images testing the ability of systems to handle overload as the images are emailed around.

I guess we learned that as well!

Sorry for anyone who was misled, although that number includes B and myself. The original images that were sent around had some misleading text on them that indicated that everything was unexpected. At least the record is corrected now!

Is this stuff non-toxic/environmentally friendly/naturally dissipiates?

Misled? That's what they want you to believe :worried:

OK, so the timeline was wrong and the system did not fail to shut off when it should. That's good news.
BUT;
1- It did not perform as expected.
2- The fact it performed better than expected still means they were wrong.
3- It caught everyone involved, off guard.
4- To fill the hangar and coat the countryside was not planned
5- It's funny as hell.

Of course, as Master Sgt. Dana Rogers said, all that emailing does more damage than the excess foam so, no harm, no foul.
Just Easter egg on their faces. :lol:

Soap and water?

Welcome to the Cellar, mtspace. :D
Is that true?

> I wonder how they'd clean it up though.

Greetings Private! - Meet Mr toothbrush... :lol:

-t

mama mia!

Welcome to the Cellar, tangent. :D
Sounds like you've been there/done that.

Airmen
 

Actually the Airforce doesnt have Privates, they have Airmen...

And they dont work, that's what civilian contractors are for.

:us:

In response to the cleanup - My Dad was a career Crash and Rescue firefighter for the Airforce and I was a volunteer for a number of years. What is typically used in the foam systems is a form of dish soap labeled AFFF (Aqueous Film Forming Foam or "A Triple F") (there are other additives based on the location or known combustibles in the building, but typically just a non-toxic bubbly stuff to cool down the combustible and slow down the amount of oxygen that can get to the fire. Foam sits on top of liquids like jet fuel and other stuff and doesn't splash it around like just plain water would - think of spraying cold water in a hot deep fryer - not good). All it takes is removing the fluff via fans or snow shovels and then a lot of power washing. You noticed a firetruck in one of the photos? The water cannon on those are a pretty effective power washer. Final thought - the B2's at Ellsworth are spendy. At least with a foam system like this you just wash off the planes and it doesn't damage the special paint and coatings on the aircraft. Also, if you're surrounded in AFFF foam, just swim your arms around infront of your face and you create an air pocket that you can breathe. Unless it's Baricade Foam, but that's a different story and not something they'd use in a location like this.

Thanks, Dirk. Welcome to the Cellar.

Don't beleive everything you here.
I am an Airmen at Ellsworth and if you want to actually know what happened don't float around blindsided site like this and go read something with believability......

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123019117

it was 4 minutes, it did not cost millions in damage to b-1's, and overall the test was incredibly succesful compared to what they wanted. and they opened the doors for the sake of those people standing on the scaffolding.
now grow some brain cells and quit being qullable.

1-NO it performed better then expected.
2-It's a test they didn't know how it was going to perform, that's why they were TESTING IT.
3-true
4-no harm no foul
5-so is the intelligence level of this thread.

Dirk: we don't have b2's that would be a base elsewhere in the midwest, we have b-1's not quite as expensive but still very costly.
The B2 cost rougly 7 times that of the b1.

Hey comphappy, welcome to the Cellar.

You're basically just arguing semantics. If there are expectations before a test, and then the results are different than those expectations, then those expectations were wrong. You're right. It's just a test, so it's no big deal. And it's just a bunch of harmless foam. No harm, no foul, as you say.

Nobody is saying that the fine men and women at Ellsworth are idiots. This thread is just a great picture story. It's funny. Look at all that foam! It's received a lot of attention, which is further proof that it's a great sequence of images.

cost
 

Speaking of Cost. I just recently read a blurb that says that the B-2's are worth (or cost) more than their weight in gold. I dont know the exact specs on the weight of a B-2, but I know they are pretty darn heavy. That's a lot of gold!


Ahh... Military bluntness permeates the post's of comphappy. :) One thing about being in the military, is that soldiers are usually not slow to express their opinions or feelings about topics or other people. Unless of course that other person significantly outranks you, in which case you might hold off on your opinions of his character, and stick to opinions of the topic at hand. Except perhaps if you have a good working relationship with him, and you do not take it to the point of disrespect or disregard for his authority.

Your correct about the weight/cost thing. an empty B2 weighs 154000 rounded up, in gold that's 1.6 billion rounded up, a B2 cost more then 2 billion.

as far as bluntness goes, I got it from my mother but then she was an army brat.

And arn't you the one that said the Air Force doesn't have soldiers it has Airmen. I know you were just trying to make a point, but you could use miltary personnel instead it's more of a generalization as not to offend anyone.
And are you military? you seem to think you know abunch about it. it really has nothing to do with rank but more of relationship between between two people. I have two e-5's above me and I might jokingly call one of them an A**hole or an idiot but then the other one I wouldn't because the one is more relaxed like that, and the other one is all high and mighty disciplined like.

Haha, those pictures are awesome, regardless of the spin the military tries to put on what happened. Two stories of foam is two stories of foam.

I believe gen131 was referring to your insinuations that the posters here, and xoxoxoBruce in particular, have less than average intelligence. Seeing as how you don't have a relaxed relationship with Bruce, who seems to be one of the authority figures on the board, gen131 suggested you should keep your disrespectful "opinions of his character" to yourself.

Just sayin'.

okay, just for the hell of it remark of idiocy removed.

and the comment was in no particular way directed toward Bruce more then any one else that had previously posted in this thread.

as far as authority figure on a web forum?? ROFL-I didn't think this existed. and even if it did, the way in which I speak to my boss who can influence my job security and the guy that polices my web postings have absolutly no bearing on each other.

Hello comphappy, glad you stopped by.
The "Air Force Link" you posted had been already posted by Undertoad in post #25.
If you follow the thread, yes, the original posting had the wrong facts. I was misled and I misled Undertoad. After post #25 the real story was known and that's what I was saying in my post you quoted, that even with the true circumstances known, it was still funny. If anyone is to "blame", it's the overzealous contractor, that supplied the system, for not knowing it's capabilities.

What I found as funny as the pictures is the tightassed tap dancing by Tech. Sgt. Steven D. Wilson, Lt. Col. Navnit Singh and Master Sgt. Dana Rogers, trying to be all serious and military.

If you poke around the Cellar a bit, you'll find we're pretty split on what the military is doing, under orders, these days. But that said, I think you'll find we (99% at least) have nothing but respect and admiration for the men and women that have to carry out those orders.

If you feel personally offended by this thread and the comments in it, you shouldn't. :D

Welcome to the Cellar, Ernster.
"Authority figure"? Moi? Naw, just another opinionated bastard that likes to throw my 2 cents into the mix. :lol:

all that hanger needs is some hard nrg rave music and some strobes and lasers.

damn Fly Boys........

hmm?
 

I must say comphappy, you came here pretty hostile.

I found the pictures hilarious, and even after finding out the real story, it was still hilarious. :lol:

and i keep saying you fly boys crack me up!!

Yeah thats pretty much correct. :)

hmm.. I feel led to explain some military practice and courtesy at the moment. Think of it as my advice, instruction or biased opinion.

Knowing when one can be blunt or not is based on relationship, rank and personal character. That is a part of tact.

Rank does have a lot to do with it, because without tact, your bluntness becomes disregard for authority. In truth, crossing the barriers between enlisted and NCO, you can have a good working relationship, but you are not meant to be buddies on the job. If you think you are buddies with an E-5, then he is either not professional enough to serve as an NCO and should have remained an Airman, or you have not learned proper respect and courtesy or protocol. Just by your description of your relationships you have with your E-5's and your opinions of them, would give serious doubt in the mind of any good NCO as to your ability to perform without question in a situation that calls for imediate action and following of orders from leadership, where lives could be lost due to a moment of hesitation on your part caused by an over relaxed relationship and lack of professionality.

With a good working and yet professional relationship it becomes a jest of fun.

With a person who has a "high and mighty disciplined like" character it could be something to be cautious about. Speaking of which if you think someone has a "high and mighty disciplined like" character, is it the person who has the issue, or a lack of responsibility and personal discipline which causes you to think that disciplined people think they are high and mighty?

One has to question the trueness of one who asks for political correctness so as "not to offend anyone" in refering to Airmen as "miltary personnel" when he himself calls his mother an "Army brat" ;)


Am I military? I'm not the whole military, but I understand your somewhat gramatically incorrect question. I am serving in the military. And I'd wager that my experience is a little higher than yours, and I may have a little more of an inkling of military protocol and behavior, having come into an older military than the soft and easy politically correct military you are used to. I've been where you were, although not so brash and tactless, starting from an E-1, spent a good proud number of years as an NCO and now currently enjoy the esteem of the commissioned status. Listening to an Airmen's explain how the Military works, stemming from his limited military experience and some work relationships with a couple of E-5s, is like listening to a highschooler expound upon the wisdom he has aquired in life. ;) Now if someone comes on to post and can correct or further expound on my theories, and has over 10 years of military service, I would then be willing to concede my opinion over to his wisdom.

I dont consider myself high and mighty, although you might think of me as such, and that would be your perogative. Should you call me an idiot in jest as we work in the field, (Not that you Airmen ever get in the dirt), I would probably return such a compliment in a like manner. If you were to show a tone of aggression or disrespect, you would quickly find yourself crunching out pushups with your feet up on the side of one of those fancy B-1 tires at least 4 feet off the ground until I get tired. If you were to call me an A**hole or anything of the such using a vulgar and unprofessional language, you would definately find yourself with a nice round of consructive and corrective activity.

So to break it down, I think you need to gain some experience before you can tell anyone how the military truly works, and you need to learn and practice a little tact, respect, and keep such unwarranted and discourteous opinions out of your posts.

Any way, those are my thoughts, and opinions. But I could just be an overly conservative, opinionated, and "high and mighty" Officer with 10 years enlisted experience, who has once been there, done that, been in the dirt with the guys, and had too much fun burning things, shooting telephone pole sized rockets with the potential to destroy 1 grid square (1 square kilometer) in one volley, driving track vehicles at high speed, shooting stuff up, sleeping in cramped vehicles for weeks, taking care of soldiers, and wishing the military of today wouldnt be so politically sensitive, soft, stress-free, and allow young people to come into service with no sense of respect, personal discipline, and who think anyone who offers professional correction is merely out to get them and hates them. ;) Not to say I disrespect these types of people. I just dont think they are suited for the military, and the world has better places for such free-willed and possibly free-thinking people.

sorry didnt mean to post so long.

--

Soo.... Back to the image of the day.

I still think a certain level of control was absent and someone wasnt thinking all the way through for it to get so out of hand.

And you have to admit. Those pics are pretty darn funny. :D

Kagen4o4 is right:
rave music, strobes and lasers, would be pretty cool in a hanger that size.
:cool:

well Gen,
That was a bit much for a response to anything I said, considering we are on a web forum. but anywho as far as 'army brat' goes isn't that the proper slang term for the child of a Soldier in the army? I suppose proper slang would just kind of be an oxymoron.

I don't think there's anything wrong with an E-4 and an E-5 being friends with each other. As long as he can be my boss when he needs to be (i.e. I'm in trouble). I've even shared a few jokes with my LT and Capt. Are you telling me you never share a joke with the guys even if there a couple pay grades higher or lower then yourself? I've been inside a few officers lounges I know what there doing on friday afternoon.

and since everyone is assured of the truth that this was in no way a fluke and actually great success as far as testing goes.
picture courtesy of a fellow member of 3c0x1.net

Heh, proper slang, or perhaps slang-proper would be ebonics wouldnt it? :)

Professionally and Personally are two seperate things. Personally I think there is room for good friendship as long as when you walk into the work place it reamins outside, and you only carry in a good work relationship. A good friendship should never get in the way of professionality. Once you reach the NCO ranks you begin to see this more, and it becomes a balance act. This is hard thing in church environments, where regardless of rank from COL to Private, we are all equal in church or in fellowship. But in the work place it is put aside. I pulled my evaluation based off your personal opinion of the two E-5's which seemed to go above professionality. Friendship across ranks can sometimes cause an inadvertant sense of equality or ability to judge those of rank similar to your higher ranking friends. When I was an E-5 my best friend was (still me best friend) was a promotable 1st Lietenant in the Airforce, but we were kinda able to get away with it because we did not work together, and I am in the Army. Our friendship didnt get in the way of profession because we didnt work together.

--

Heh. I imagine it was a great success. With that much foam how could it NOT be a success? :D All you need is one spout in the middle of base, and if there is a fire on post just let her rip and you put the fire out and everyone has clean dishes!

hahaha nice one comp. its just what i imagined

Damn, gen131. I hope you don't give orders that long......everyone would have to learn shorthand. :lol:

Comphappy was a little testy, but I assumed this wasn't his first stop. UT said something like 8,000 sites were linking those pictures, so there's a good chance he'd been reading plenty of derogatory remarks about the Air Force and the military in general, before he got here.
I'd give him the benefit of the doubt, anyway.

Gen131 said "If you were to show a tone of aggression or disrespect, you would quickly find yourself crunching out pushups with your feet up on the side of one of those fancy B-1 tires at least 4 feet off the ground until I get tired.
If you were to call me an A**hole or anything of the such using a vulgar and unprofessional language, you would definately find yourself with a nice round of consructive and corrective activity."

MOUNTIN CLIMBERS MOTHER FUCKER , GO !!!!!!!

Try saying that shit to a GUNNERY SGT in the USMC , See how far it goes .
I DON'T think you would like the out come , AT ALL !!!!!!!

Oh and comphappy DON'T be going off on Bruce ( YA Byotch!!!!! ) ,
In the cellar he is an E8-9 !!! (in my hummble opinion )

RESPECT
 

To gen131: This is a good scene. It reminds me of my old days in the USAF. This link was forwarded to me from a guy who is a retired US Navy Finance Officer.

Well, now that I am a little bit older and have some bugs on my teeth traveling through life, I have to agree with your take on discipline.

When I was young and a skull full of mush, I did not have much of a clue. As time has passed and I can look back on my time in service, I would not trade it for anything in the world. At the time, it seemed to not be the case, but it is true. There is nothing like comradery and team spirit/cohesion. I have never ever have found it since with any place I have worked. So my hats off to the folks who are willing to stick it out and put up with the juveniles.

Dispite the comments to one another, this is stuff that you will take with you for the rest of your life. I can not tell you how many great people who I have met that have served in different branches from WWII forward and the stories they have shared. NOTHING HAS CHANGED! Just the people and the calendar on the wall.

I have a friend who was volunteer SS from Deutschland. He was a volunteer at 15, yes Hitler youth, the whole nine yards. I have had the opportunity to even hold and read his files and some of specialty ceremonial daggers, etc.

He was a prisoner of war in the English Occupation. He told me stories of reality, showed me pictures of the truth of it over there, you youngsters should befriend some of these old guys, you could learn a lot more than the crap that they force feed you on TV or at school.

One really profound thing he told me was "All living creatures need three things, Food, Companionship & Shelter, and it is not always in that order either, nothing else, everything else is extra, in the regards to living and dying". VERY POWERFULL AND TRUE WORDS.

THINK ABOUT THEM.

His reply about WWII, "What a waste, brother against brother". He has a tremendous respect for life despite what folks want to think of the word "SS".

He was a soldier just like you and he was doing his job. He told me about the unit cohesion with the Officers and the Enlisted. They were tight, yet with discipline and respect for their grade. They ate, slept and died together. TEAM WORK.

He was in a group of youth that came out of basic at the end of the war. They asked for 300 volunteers for SS duty. His job was to destroy tanks. He was sent to Denmark. All of the rest went to the battle of Berlin. He knows of no survivors of that event in history.

He tells me stories of starvation after the war. There was the time he was crawling along in the gravel road bed of the railroad tracks looking for corn kernels in the full moonlight that fell off the cars just so he had something to eat. Eating anything that moved, cats, etc. Finding dead horses, etc and having to butcher them. You have no clue until you've been there. I know I haven't, but I can sure imagine. Things are a lot more fragile than you can know.

So, yes, when the crap is flyin' you better make sure you know whos got your back. It is better to be friends with mutual respect than to be something else. TEAM WORK, it is what it is all about and that is what makes the USAF great!

Thanks for reading my post. And for the folks who don't get it and want to respond with little thought, well, I am sorry that you can't be reached.

Weasel Keeper of GAFB - Ghosts of the Cold War

this thread has been ruined. it started off as a funny situation and has turned in something serious.

SHAME SHAME SHAME

Welcome to the Cellar, Weasel Keeper. :) Interesting insight into the military and humanity.
Your SS buddy's story shows exactly what's wrong with the blind, gung ho attitude, the military builds. By the time this kid (15?) got into action, the war was lost. His friends died in Berlin, needlessly. What a waste, indeed. :(

well... over 350,000 views and only 60 replies. thats more than the "what the fuck" thread. if you google "ellsworth foam test" you get the Cellar as the number one site.

good shit