The White Falcon - 03.11.1967, Blaðsíða 3

Friday, November 3, 1967
WHITE FALCON
3
PLM 6 Man Crew Works
With Large Charge
Photos and Story
by Paul Jespersen
If practice makes perfect then
the six Navymen who makes up
the crew of Powerline Mainten-
ance (PLM) at Naval Station
Keflavik win hands down the pro-
verbial 4-0 award.
Under normal weather condi-
tions the handling of high power
wires is at best a hazardous oc-
cupation which causes insurance
salesmen and statistician’s to
run from high voltage men
as though they had the pla-
gue. Here at Keflavik the
dangers of the job become magni-
fied, especially during the winter
months, with the often occurrence
of high winds. The velocity of
these winds are not only able to
snap power lines, but are carriers
of salt that encrust and corrode
lines causing them to short out.
The man in charge of the crew,
whose often time unglamorous job
it is, to ensure that the line of
power flows uninterruptedly is
Petty Officer Second Class Merle
L. Query, leading petty officer of
Power Line Maintenance.
When it comes to electricity,
PLM’s Petty Officer in charge is
a man of experience. Query has
been working with volts, watts
and etc. since 1950 when he gradu-
ated from high school and went to
work for an electrical construc-
tion company. Since this time the
experience he has gained on the
job and the education he has ac-
quired in two Navy schools quali-
fies him as a good man to know
when your lights start flickering.
The men who work with Query
are all graduates from Class A
Construction Electrician’s School a
course of instruction which PLM’s
leading Petty Offier rates as ex-
cellent.
Besides the Naval Station the
six man crew also are responsible
for all the power lines of Rock-
ville and the H-l and H-2 Sites.
Often times the work that these
men do goes unnoticed by most of
the personnel on the Naval Sta-
tion, but they are currently in-
volved in a project, that of repla-
cing 39 power poles, that is percep-
tive enough in its nature to win
them the applauded acclaim that
is their due.
Through two processes, that of
drilling into a pole to determine
the quality of the wood and there-
fore the poles strength and the
appearance of the pole it was de-
termined that it was time to re-
place 39 of the old with the new.
The actual mechanics of taking
the wooden poles out of the ground
and replacing them with new po-
les is contracted out. However,
before the pole can be touched the
power to the line must be killed
and naturally removed, a job fal-
ling to PLM.
Once all lines are removed, the
power equipment that is capable
of extracting the pole is moved
in. Whenever possible new poles
are replaced in the same hole to
avoid drilling a new hole into the
more often than not rock strewn
earths crust. While a new pole is
in the process of being errected
an auxiliary power source will be
THE TOWER OF BABEL—is what it looks like but actually is just
a Public Works Crane that has had several extensions added to it.
Such a Crane is often necessary for removal and replacement of
power poles on the Naval Station.
hooked up to the building that is
effected by the power outage by
the PLM crew. PLM has three
generators. Two of these are 100
kilowatt types that are used for
buildings requiring 400 volts such
as Building T-44 which houses
your Armed Forces and Radio and
Television Station. The other
generator is a 60 kilowatt type.
The new poles are ready for in-
stallation when they arrive here
from the firm they are purchased
from in the United States. Al-
though each pole initially costs
$120. by the time installation costs
of the contracting firm and man
hours of the PLM crew are fi-
gured in, the cost of individual
pole installation runs well above
this figure.
Even though the old poles are
no longer safe for their orginal
purpose they are not discarded,
but instead are turned over to
Salvage and often used as bum-
pers in parking lots around the
Station.
Although replacing poles is an
important job for PLM a more
routine one is their weekly check
of all street lights around the Na-
val Station. Each Saturday night
one man is assigned to this job
of making the rounds and tag-
ging those lights which are in-
operative, so that they may be
replaced by PLM the following
week.
As in any organizational struc-
ture, power coming into the NATO
base goes through a chain of
command. A constant 66,000 volts
comes from a line in Reykjavik
directly to the power house on the
Station. These volts in turn go
into step down transformers and
come out as 4,160 volts which
goes into the main feeder lines.
From feeder lines it is back to the
transformers again where power
is reduced so that it may flow
into secondary lines which are the
ones that connect to places of work
and habitation.
Although they don’t carry the
mail, the mailman’s slogan of
getting through with their cargo
despite snow, sleet, rain or hail
holds true for the men of PLM as
they ensure that you will have
electricity for light and heat.
TRANSFORMATION OF THE
TRANSFORMER—is taking place
as one of the men from Power Line
Maintenance removes the reducer
transformer from the power pole
prior to the poles removal. There
are 39 poles on the Naval Station
that are scheduled for replace-
ment.
Miss Caro! Byrnes
Departs Iceland
The Principal in Charge of the
A. T. Mahan Dependent School
has announced the resignation of
Miss Carol Byrnes effective Nov.
22. Miss Byrnes is returning to the
United States and will be marri-
ed shortly thereafter.
The Dependent School is fortunate
in having obtained the services of
Mrs. Vera LeMasters to fill the
vacant position. Mrs. LeMasters
has an extensive background in
Primary school work. She will
spend a week with Miss Byrnes
prior to the change, thus provi-
ding for a smooth turnover.
New Rockville —
(Continued, from Page 1)
proper maintenance section for re-
pairs.
The console tells a viewer at
a quick glance the maintenance
technicians available, equipment
status, equipment out-of-service
for 24 hours periods, and schedu-
led preventative maintenance and
overhaul times for a two-month
period.
Story For Today
“You were 20 minutes late again
this morning. Don’t you know
what time we start work here?”
“No sir, everyone’s already work-
ing when I get here.”
— Los Angeles Times.
Call News Tips
To Ext. 4156
HOW LOW WILL IT GO—Seems to be the question that these men
are pondering. Part of an Icelandic construction crew these men are
responsible for the actual mechanics of removing the 39 old poles and
replacing them with new ones.
I’VE STUCK A ROCK—and it is a pretty good bet that these men
will strike many more as they loosen the earth around this power
pole prior to its removal. Because of the difficulty in drilling new
holes for the replacement of poles old holes are used whenever pos-
sible.