Ripples of Thought

Well, the other night, I was standing port-watch at the seaport here in Pohang, South Korea.

Well, I wasn't there more than an hour when I decided to sit down in the passenger seat of one of our military ambulances. Next thing that I know, bright-yellow sparks shot out from under the seat at my feet! Well, obviously, out of instinct, I hopped out of the vehicle and started to look at it.

So, as I'm looking at the seat, I noticed that the ambulance lights, front and back, had turned on, and something underneath the hood of the truck was smoking. So, I jiggled the seat a little, and the lights kicked off.

I stepped away from the vehicle for a minute and just looked. Then, underneath the vehicle, I noticed that there was a slight flickering, like that from a flame. I freaked!

Next, one of my Marines and I popped the hood, and one of the wires was on fire. I blew it out, and we disconnected the battery. Then, realizing that the wrong seat was in place in the ambulance, we formulated what happened.

I shorted the damn thing. You see, in a military hummvy, in this case, an ambulance, the batteries are located underneath the passenger seat. Well, with wrong seat there, I managed to get the two posts of the battery to connect, and that's where it all started.

I guess that it is only my good luck to sit down in an ambulance, of all things, and catch it on fire.

~ by Jonathan Cockrum on Thursday, November 8, 2007.