It's Not Easy Being Green (2)

A couple of weeks ago, I used the headline It's Not Easy Being Green for my blog. I talked about buying carbon credits to offset the effects hydrocarbons have on the environment. A news item I read this morning begged for the same headline, so here it goes -- It's Not Easy Being Green part two. The Stars and Stripes reports that a staff sergeant in the Air Force's 35th aircraft maintenance unit was sentenced to three months in jail and received a bad conduct discharge for his part in an incident where a frog was thrown into a an F-16 engine. A running F-16 engine. It appears someone wanted to spice up his myspace.com web page and decided filming a frog being thrown into a running jet engine would be a cool way to do that. So the frog assassins entered a hush house (where high power engine runs are done to help reduce noise) on June 26, 2006. Since engines are being operated at high power settings, a hush house is a no-FOD area, and maintenance personnel are instructed not to bring any foreign objects into the area. I guess these guys didn't think some frogs and a video camera counted as FOD. So they began their amateur film career by filming the frog being tossed into the engine. The video was posted on a myspace.com web page where it remained for nine days. Maybe it's just me, but if you are going to do something illegal or against the regulations, isn't is pretty stupid to post evidence of your shenanigans on the internet? I guess these guys didn't think so, since the video contained the F-16's tail markings identifying it as part of the 8th Fighter Wing. All 41 aircraft in the Wing were grounded following discovery of the incident. Seems the Air Force doesn't look favorably on foreign objects being intentionally thrown into jet engines. The resulting inspection of the fleet involved 400 mechanics having to work over the weekend to inspect the fleet to ensure no other engines were used as frog atomization devices. By the way, the mechanic who filmed the incident and another who attempted to throw a frog into the engine but missed have been sentenced. The actual frog tosser caught on film is still awaiting trial. You can click here to read the full story. Thanks for reading, Joe Escobar