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Posted on 05/11/2008 1:28:47 PM PDT by raybbr
Three years and three months before Ryan Maseth stepped into a shower Jan. 2 in Baghdad, an Army safety specialist identified electrocution as a "killer of soldiers."
Still, when the 24-year-old Shaler Green Beret turned on the faucet, water flowed from a pump powered by an improperly grounded electrical system manufactured in China. Borne on water, an electrical current surged through the pipes, out of the shower head and into his body.
His heart stopped.
Maseth's electrocution, the latest of 14 among service personnel in Iraq since 2003, set into motion a series of events to determine how and why these deaths occurred. In March, a congressional committee started an investigation into all Iraq electrocutions. A month later, Maseth's parents sued the defense contractor responsible for the Chinese electrical system, alleging it failed to meet U.S. safety standards. And now, families across the country say they want more detailed information about the earlier deaths of loved ones.
"I want answers, not revenge," said Bart Cedergren of South St. Paul, Minn., who suspects his son died of electrocution Sept. 11, 2005, near Iskandariyah, Iraq.
Back then, the Navy said Petty Officer 3rd Class David A. Cedergren, 25, died of natural causes after being found unconscious in a shower stall, he said. Although Cedergren asked for additional information, he said he received only documents with black marks covering specifics of the investigation that the Navy has closed.
"I know for sure that there were problems where he was, near the electric generating station, because there was a history of individuals getting shocked," Cedergren said. "I just want to know what happened. He was strong and healthy."
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
China’s products strike again.
Thank you, Richard Hussein Nixon, for opening up China.
It's situations like getting hard drives to operate in a shock and vibration environment on an Apache Attack Helicopter, or keeping the toilets from becoming missiles when a torpedo transfers it's energy into the deck of a ship.
It's the difference between a $50 coffee pot or a $500 coffee pot made to special MIL SPEC requirements. The $50 one puts enough broadband and narrow band noise into a missile guidance circuit that the missile couldn't keep on signal. It will also leak line to line and line to ground potential direct to the steel table it's sitting on.
It doesn’t look like China is at fault. It looks like KBR inc and mil maintenance are the ones at fault.
It looks like, to me, that they are all at fault. Why are we buying from China for our military? Cost effectiveness?
Sort of the same reasoning that made the early M-16 so dangerous to our troops.
I don't think DOD field generators come from China. I think KBR would be the only ones to do so, and that would be under a contract to provide facilities and facilty support. There would be no difference in a Chinese generator in terms of connections, or waveform. As long as it's connected right, it would work just like any other generator.
"Sort of the same reasoning that made the early M-16 so dangerous to our troops."
The powder used in the ammo was changed w/o testing...
That sounds like the emissions from contacts closing/opening. A solid state relay would eliminate that and still not bring the price to $500.
"It will also leak line to line and line to ground potential direct to the steel table it's sitting on."
Only the line's potential could be coupled to the table and that would be capacitively coupled. Any magnetic coupling would be small and just result in tiny eddy currents.
It took the Army's bureaucracy 6 years to wrap it's head around Stoners revolutionary M-16. Mil Spec.
In the early 80’s we'd go off base to buy our own Aimpoint sights, which had been out for five years. The Army preferred in low light, darkness we shoot off matte black iron sights. I think it took the Army almost 15 years to get Aimpoint like sights to common soldiers. Delta and SF had them off the shelf. Mil Spec.
The South Africans and Rhodesians had mine resistant vehicles 30-40 years ago. Even with the experience of Vietnam mines, and a hundred dirty wars around the world, the Army couldn't get the troops resistant vehicles, and the ones now are huge monsters. Mil Spec.
A good commercial coffee maker is near $200. It's been my observation that in the Army anyways, they are ten years , at least, behind the commercial market in quality and perfomance.
Both are...KBR AND Red China
The Air Force just contracted for the correct powder and it's perimeter guards had little problems.
So, then the Army tried to screw the pooch by doing all sorts of FrankenRifle modifications to the M-16. This went on for years. Resulting in chrome bolts, barrels, forward assist (all good things in a way).
I'm reminded of the US Navy in WWII with at least two or more years of crap, totally faulty torpedoes that the Navy torpedo bureaucracy blamed on Sub Skippers.
Not military, but just as close was NASA and the Challenger explosion with the frozen rubber rings on the solid boosters.
In order to include Red China, you need to show how a generator can electrocute someone when it's hooked up right. Good luck!
I was referring to the Sec of Defense wanting to save money by ordering the M16 without chrome plated chambers to save money.
There are no commercial machines or equipment which emmit less than 20db from 4HZ all the way up to 2GHZ without signifigant and costly redesign or modifications.
If you really want to have fun, try to TEMPEST comply your desktop PC. You'll find out very quickly that a $600 computer becomes a $7000 computer in order to get it there.
I don't want to overstate the obvious, but obtaining a good ground in sand is almost impossible. Most of Iraq is sand. I doubt the military attracts too many engineers to support deployed units. Cases like this were why we incorporated mil-specs into defense procurement in the first place! If the pump which electrocuted this soldier was being powered by the same generator that powered the radar units on site, what do you think the reliability of those units must be? Not good for much!
We need to send young males to Male Summer Camp so that they know how to solider a pipe, wire a circuit, build a shed, replace a water pump.
The young males I meet today are mechanically clueless.
I can attest to that. I have worked in industrial electrical maintenance for almost thirty years. I get lots of looks of dumbfoundedness every time I pull my meter out.
From the story: "They claim the contractor knew that hazardous conditions existed from improper grounding of faulty electrical systems manufactured in China for sale only to countries outside the United States because they did not comply with U.S. electrical safety standards."
I live on the Cape. All sand. As far as I know, good grounds are had by pounding down 10 foot, plus copper rods. Seems to work.
Specialized units like commo, Air Defense and such have their own dedicated generators and electricians, including of course high voltage.
Other stories have reported that KBR used electricians from Afganistan to do the work. Unless your young males are willing to work for the couple of bucks a day that the KBR electricans were willing to work for then their aptitude is meaningless.
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