encore
Lost Translation
A Navy lieutenant on fuels officer duty is hesitant to show his ignorance when he cannot figure out the meaning of an annotation on the fuel inventory status board.
Receiving orders as fuels officer at NAS Oceana, Va., after a tour as supply officer of a destroyer brought a little apprehension, but the detailer assured me I would get some schooling along the way. That schooling was the U.S. Air Force Fuels School in Rantoul, Ill.
The Air Force taught fuels management organization, quality testing, fuel farm structures, pipeline measuring sensors, tank level indicator devices, pump systems, delivery operations, fuel vehicle operations, overall fuel safety, and the fuels automated data inventory management system. I went away feeling very comfortable about leading the Fuels Division.
But the conditions at the naval air station were a little different. The fuel inventory was maintained on a chalkboard, with each storage tank and vehicle identified with the date inventoried, the type of fuel, and the quantity of fuel. All inventories were conducted with a long stick that was marked in quarter-inch increments and a thermometer. The sailor would smear water-finding paste on the bottom of the stick, to show the level of water in each tank, drop the stick in, touch bottom, and then read the level on the stick that was wet and record the water level in inches and the total level on the inventory form. Then the sailor would drop in the thermometer halfway and get the average ambient temperature for the entire tank and record the result.
All of this data then was given to the inventory clerk, who calculated the quantity of fuel using tables that provided the volumetric equivalents for each tank and used formulas to adjust the quantity to bring all of the fuel to a standard 60 degrees.
Once this was complete, the numbers were written on a chalkboard, so everyone knew the status of the entire inventory.
As I settled into my new job, noticing the status board and the lack of automated systems, I saw the status board had the annotation “MT” for several tanks. Not wanting to show my ignorance too quickly, I watched for a few days. The annotation moved from tank to tank without apparent logic.
Unable to figure out the unique Navy abbreviation, which obviously was not covered by the Air Force school, I asked the chief aviation boatswain’s mate.
The chief was a 26-year veteran who had seen service in a wide variety of fuel jobs, both ashore and afloat. “
Chief, what is this ‘MT’ I see on the status board?” I asked.
In a matter-of-fact manner he replied, “Lieutenant, it means there ain’t any fuel in the tank. It’s empty.”
MO
— Anthony E. Steigelman is a retired Navy captain. He is a member of the Ventura County Chapter of MOAA and lives in Camarillo, Calif. For submission information, see page 6.
Tell Your Story Submit your servicerelated adventures (or mishaps) of approximately 450 words by email to
encore@moaa.org or by mail to Encore Editor, 201 N. Washington St., Alexandria, VA 22314. All submissions will be considered for publication.
80 MILITARY OFFICER FEBRUARY 2014
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