Daba has just reminded me of a company I worked for who made test cells (hush houses) for the US Airforce for their Tactical fighter bases in UK, Germany & Spain, After the build, there was a shakedown test using a fighter & running it at full after burner while we walked round the cell air intakes & if we found any FOD (foreign Objects that could damage the aircraft) we would pick it up & put it in our pockets, fantastic experience with winds from the aircraft coming through the cell air intakes, anyway, back to the story.
A week or two after I had to go back to one in the UK to do some remedial work on the controls, I was on my own & as I had quite a high security clearance I could freely visit site without an escort, I was in the control room & suddenly two guys burst in, in full fallout gear masks the lot, One guy took his mask off & informed me that the base was in lockdown for an imminent nuclear attack, he said it is probably an exercise, but only the base commander new the status, I was told I could not leave, this could be a few hours or days, nobody could move anywhere on the base with the exception of those authorised to do so, he told me he would send the running Sheff (a mobile burger type van), typical Americans, nobody can move about except the Running Sheff. I was resigned to possibly having to sleep on the control desk for god knows how long.
About two hours later this guy popped his head in and passed me two enormous hamburgers, two packs of pop tarts & a 24 can pack of Budweiser. He told me that at the moment the condition is yellow, if I see trucks running round with black flags on them then this place would probably not exist in 4 or so minutes. I settled down, drank quite a few cans, 4-5 hours latter he returned with more.
Late that night I was informed I could leave as it was an exercise and it was over, came home with one & half packs of bud so not so bad.
A week or two after I had to go back to one in the UK to do some remedial work on the controls, I was on my own & as I had quite a high security clearance I could freely visit site without an escort, I was in the control room & suddenly two guys burst in, in full fallout gear masks the lot, One guy took his mask off & informed me that the base was in lockdown for an imminent nuclear attack, he said it is probably an exercise, but only the base commander new the status, I was told I could not leave, this could be a few hours or days, nobody could move anywhere on the base with the exception of those authorised to do so, he told me he would send the running Sheff (a mobile burger type van), typical Americans, nobody can move about except the Running Sheff. I was resigned to possibly having to sleep on the control desk for god knows how long.
About two hours later this guy popped his head in and passed me two enormous hamburgers, two packs of pop tarts & a 24 can pack of Budweiser. He told me that at the moment the condition is yellow, if I see trucks running round with black flags on them then this place would probably not exist in 4 or so minutes. I settled down, drank quite a few cans, 4-5 hours latter he returned with more.
Late that night I was informed I could leave as it was an exercise and it was over, came home with one & half packs of bud so not so bad.
