it was a dark and stormy night

It was a Dark and Stormy Night

Somewhere in the South Pacific.

It was in preparation for an incoming Typhoon sometime between 1990 to 1997 Staff sergeant Mikel Anderson and his crew consisting of the newly promoted Staff Sergeant Jones Senior Airman smith and three other airmen in the team. They were assigned to install a generator at the Communications Squadron in preparation for the onset of inclement weather. A Typhoon descended on an island in the 1990s.   A work crew volunteered to remain to prepare for the oncoming storm.  Their mission was to be on call in the event of a generator outage during the Typhoon.

            SSgt Anderson and his crew arrived in a 2 ½ ton Truck with the Generator in tow. After backing the Generator inside of the weather-protected enclosure. Work control was called to receive the instructions as to how the unit was to be installed.  The instructions were to hook up to the primary side of the transformer with a voltage of 240/416, which would be stepped down by the transformer to a usable 120/208.   We had an available fuel source because the site's backup Generator was inoperable due to an engine part that was ordered but had not received. After providing for fuel and setting up the unit as instructed. A radio call changed plans as we were not to hook up to the primary side of the transformer. Still, we were to hook up to the secondary side of the transformer requiring a change of voltage to 120/208 to avoid any damage to the building's electrical grid when activated.

SSgt Anderson took his crew aside and relayed the instructions to his men and explicitly told SSgt Jones to change the voltage immediately to 120/208 before proceeding any further.  Right at that moment, there was a lightning strike approximately 50 meters from their parking location.  The crew felt the hair on their bodies tingling from the static electricity in the area just after the booming thunderclap.  The Generator started, and fuel levels checked.  Everything was in readiness for the switchover to generator power.  After the switch was activated, there was a visible pulse and then complete darkness. At the same instant, lightning struck near the entrance to the communication squadron, which brought down a communication tower that missed the truck by approximately 5 feet.  SSgt Anderson looked at SSgt Jones called him over and asked the question, "Sarge, did you change the voltage back as I asked." The look on his face told SSgt Anderson all he needed to know SSgt Anderson looked to confirm his greatest fear. The voltage was incorrectly set on the generator unit.  At that moment, a Major came out the front door of the facility, looked at the communication tower, and said Sergeant that lightning strike knocked out the building.  Thinking on his feet, SSgt Anderson said YES SIR, IT DID!!!  The Major and SSgt Anderson went through the communications Squadron to assess the damage. Every fluorescent light ballast was blown every unit not connected to a surge suppressor burned out. That consisted of every printer in the building and two computers and four vending machines.

SSgt Anderson took the NCO's aside and had a heart to heart talk. "The airmen have no clue as to what happened: gentlemen, the regulation reads like this. We three are at a minimum will be responsible for one month's base pay, and one of us will get smacked with the full bill for the repairs". That person will be me. However, we have a unique opportunity to avoid this consequence. The Major believes that this was due to a lightning strike, and I do not plan on contradicting him. I need to know where you stand on this issue. If you concur, that will be the story. If you do not, we will take our lumps as we must have the same account, as we will all be questioned about the events of that evening. They all concurred. Now that is settled, change that Generator to the correct voltage.  I wrote the incident up in the after-action report and solicited input from the major who was eager to help and added his contribution to the official document.   We were, asked individually about what happened. A few days later, we were called into the commander's office, and we had to repeat the story for the umpteenth time and signed the official document that recorded the incident. I thought we were home free when my supervisor and Superintendent cornered me in the hallway and asked.  Did it happen, as you said?  I said, Sir, it was the strangest thing I have ever seen. If someone told me something like that, I would have serious doubts as well.  The last thing I heard was "Carry on Sargent" My reply was Yes, Sir!  We three never spoke of it again until we had retired.  It went kind of like this  Jones you remember that dark and stormy night on that island way back when.