On a summer morning in 1988 at Lowry AFB, Colorado, I was enjoying a nice Saturday with my family. I had been stationed at Lowry since 1984 after I had applied for the special duty assignment as a Technical Training Instructor for the 463X0 basic course.
About 1987, I left the basic course where I taught Area III classes and was reassigned to the new Peacekeeper ICBM Maintenance School. That Saturday morning, my family time was interrupted with a telephone call from my boss, Jim Tollerud. Being the only one in Peacekeeper who lived in base housing, Jim proceeds to tell me that he received a call from the Lowry AFB Fire Department that they needed to get into the Peacekeeper Training Facility because of a reported gas leak in the area. As I was closest to the schoolhouse, Jim asked me to respond.
I left base housing on the Northwest corner of the Base and got to the Peacekeeper school in about five minutes. Upon arriving, I met with the Lowry AFB firefighters who had responded to school parking lot, keeping their trucks a safe distance from the facility. I was greeted by the on-scene commander who indicated they needed me to open the facility so they could go in with their equipment to see if the gas leak was coming from the facility itself.
I remembered that we were in the middle of a PK reentry system build for an 8-week class we were teaching for an F.E. Warren crew and that we had RV's exposed in the RS Bay. At that time, we were told that certain characteristics of the W-87 warhead were classified and they had to be covered when visitors without a "need to know" were present. I told the on-scene commander about this little dilemma and he suggested that I enter the facility first to cover the RV's so they could go in and do their job.
Like a good NCO, I agreed to do what he suggested. Fearing that I could encounter a toxic environment, the on-scene commander then asked if I knew how to use a Scott Air pack (the self contained breather with mask and air tank). I said no. The on-scene commander then summoned an Airman on the truck to bring me my very own Scott Air pack and they proceeded to give me a crash course on how to use the breather.
After my 2-minute parking lot class, and now all suited up with keys and an explosive proof flashlight in hand, I proceeded to the PK facility door. The on-scene commander had warned me upon entry not to activate anything electrical because of the potential for gas vapors. Upon unlocking the doors and entering the dark facility, I turned on my explosive proof flashlight and proceeded down the long hallway to the RS Bay.
After entering the Bay, I set the flashlight down and, taking the huge black plastic tarp for the RV's from the floor, began to cover the dozen RV's resting on their cradles. Anyone who works PK knows that when an RV sits in the cradle, the nose is about 8 feet off the ground. Normally, it would take at least two people to cover the group of RV's. But, being I was the only person in the Bay, I had to struggle to get the tarp over the RV's alone, wearing a Scott Air pack by the light of a single flashlight. At 5'9" tall, I'm sure you can picture my struggle.
When I came out of the PK facility, I couldn't get the Scott Air pack off fast enough. The firefighters went in after me with their gas detecting equipment and could not find a leak in the facility. My one day as a firefighter was happily over.