Thursday, June 2, 2016

WE NEVER LEARN LESSONS

                                                        WE NEVER LEARN LESSONS

                                                     Colonel Dr K Prabhakar Rao ( retired )

                         We are sitting on a volcano. Fires in Indian army ordnance depots have occurred many times before and these are  not new. There is always fire hazard in such establishments. The tragedy is that the Central Audit dept long ago has cautioned the higher ..ups about the inadequacies of fire fighting equipment and facilities at the concerned depot as reported in media. But it seems it was not taken care of. therefore one has to pay for it. The receiving end obviously is the army staff. Many died including senior army officers , a major and a lt col. After some time , all will forget the incident and things go on as usual. Some tears will be shed for the dead and money will be given to families. Any amount of money will not bring back dead. 
                   This indicates about our ineffective management systems in vital organizations although army claims better management in their establishments. We have college of Defense management at secunderabad bad, material management college at Jabalpur, dept of management at MCEME, staff college at Wellington, tech staff college at Pune so on so forth. Who is to be blamed? After some time , there will be a blame game between civilian setup and army guys. Nothing will come out and scape goats will be slaughtered. I am sure Army guys will have to pay and take blame too. The. Officers and others who fought the fire were brave and did not run away from spot to save themselves from fire. Will they get some bravery awards? When? When Senior Munbai police officers can get highest peace time gallantry award in Bombay terrorist attck few years ago where they did not fire a single bullet and did not draw their pistols even and sat in a car, these Army guys too should be given bravery award  for actions of course not against enemy. The sabotage aspect is still vague. There are statements that fire must have erupted due to high atmospheric temperature prevailing in pulgaon which is about 115 Km from Nagpur city.. These stocks of  ammunition is expected to be used in extreme climatic condition.Similar ammunition is probably being used world wide including middl east where. temperatures are very high and also  the climate is usual one. How they are preserving ammunition? Can any ammunition orexplosive reach self ingnition temperature at 50 degrees C.It is very unlikely that temperature in this summer has reached 50 any where in india although at some places 46 degrees have been reported. A point to ponder over indeed.The argument will not stand . let us wait and see the game.Most probably there must have a human failure at some place like throwing a lighted matchstick or cigarette butt. No aspect can be overlooked.


Fires in depots are common
These happened many times in past
We never learn lessons and look other way
But for army guys personal safety is the last

guys do many courses in army
And add a long list to their names
The old story repeats very often
All are then busy in blame games

Some guys at top get  a VSM or AVSM
while the real guys are thrown into dust
rat race is the order of the day in service
Entire career spins in dusty mist


GOD BLESS EVERY ONE IN THIS COUNTRY

1 comment:

Dr K Prabhakar Rao said...

A point to note is about ammunition catching fire on its own. This is the most unlikely. Any ammunition that explodes or catches fire on its own must reach self ignition temperature (SIT). Ammunition such as tank shells, small arms ammunition have explosive such as cardite or equivalent in granular form or small tube type are sealed within in brass shells and fitted with primer cap at the base While the projectile seals the front side of the shell at the obturator band which is airtight .These will not explode unless caps are struck at the base or they are subjected to intense heat like being thrown in fire or caught in a burning tank hit by enemy fire or else a loaded tank with ammunition catching fire due to fuel system problems or due to enemy Action. Artillery bag ammunition of course is susceptible. But it has to get into contact with fire or surrounding heat generates self ignition temperatures. Thus the naive statements that fire must have occurred due to high atmospheric temperature will not stand.Atmospheric temperature any where at 50 degrees C has no effect. Surely some careless handling, of ammunition susceptible to explosion due to shock such as gelatin sticks etc used for rock Blasting could have occurred. Will these depots have such ammunition Stocked? Or else fire must have spread where surrounding wild dry grass must have caught fire due to carelessly thrown lighted match stick or lighted cigarette butt and the blaze grew to great proportions unable to control that engulfed the storage areas. Nothing is impossible. only an impartial inquiry With a will to explore truth Can reveal the real truth.