SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - Your bestest buddy, the OBA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTbEuWjLgts

FWIW, I know more about OBAs than any human should. :doh: :har: :yeah:

For those of you who have also experienced the wonders of the OBA, what did he do wrong when he lit it off? Here's a hint, it involves a tiny lanyard. :up:

My best OBA story, we were in the middle of our ORSE on the Bremerton when I and two other guys wearing the full fire fighting suits get pulled aside by one of the inspectors. "Light off your OBAs", he says.

"You're kidding, Chief?" I say.

Mind you, we were a couple of hundred feet deep at the time and definitly not on the pier.

"Nope, light them off".

Okey dokey, here goes nothing. When an ORSE inspector tells you to do something for real, you damned well better get busy. So, we all get our bags inflated and face seals tested. We get our timers set and even score brownie points by calling Crew's Mess on the sound powered phones and telling the COB what our light-off times were.

"Awesome, you guys smoked it". :yeah:

"Um, Chief? What do you want us to do with the canisters?"

:o

I need to backtrack a little. When we called Crew's Mess and told the COB what our light-off times were, he replied with "You lit off what??"

:har:

There's a really good reason why we always simulated lighting off our OBAs unless it was a real casualty. Those canisters get really hot while they belch out oxygen for the better part of an hour. If you pour salt water into a hot canister, it will also belch out chlorine gas which really makes things interesting in a sealed environment. With any kind of grease or oil contamination, you have all the ingredients you need to make a blow torch. :yeah:

Our gallant ORSE inspector should have known this when he ordered the light-offs. :yep:

So, we get back on the phone to DC Central in Crew's Mess and one of our guys shows up with the cleanest plastic bucket on the boat filled with tap water.

:Kaleun_Cheers: