Skirting the Issue

From a weekly staff report

STAT # 16 is pursuing a request for information to lower crew compartment operating temperatures on vehicles equipped with gun turrets. Suggestions received to date include a gunner’s skirt, camouflage sun screen and application of insulating material. STAT #16 will also work with a team conducting temperature data study.
----------------------------
The above note came from the talking papers and I am not sure we have thought this all through. I can understand how putting the gunner in a skirt might make him feel a little cooler. And I suppose he will need to put sun screen on those exposed legs to keep from getting a sun burn so camouflage sun screen is probably a good way to go. And I suppose you will need to insulate the metal around his turret so that when he sits down or bends over he does not burn the back of his legs. But what I don't understand is how this is going to lower crew compartment temps - unless the laughter generated by the rest of the crew has some cooling benefit that I simply never noticed before.

Mike - - - - - - - - -
But then I was told to put it in rhyme to bring it up to my standards.

Skirting the Issue


I’m not sure we have thought this all through
This action to cool down the crew
But the team says we need it
So I say we heed it
Now here’s what we’re going to do

We can put that poor guy in a skirt
But the sunburn he’d get would sure hurt
So that’s why the sunscreen
We’ll use Camouflage Green
They think that these actions will work

So the gunner’s legs now are exposed
And the metal’s all hot I suppose
And so he can sit
We will insulate it
For that’s what the team has proposed

But how does this get the crew cool
Sitting below on a stool
Tell me how if you please
Is their laughter a breeze
That works like a new cooling tool

So now you know all that I know
About cooling the crew on the go
The Buck may stop here
But relief must appear
As a cooling breeze from down below

Mdailey
09/20/07