Something Is In The Water at the Muskogee Power Plant

“Something is in the water in Muskogee.”  That is what I used to say.  Something that makes people feel invulnerable.  That was what I attributed to David Stewart’s belief that he could jump up in a falling elevator just before it crashed into the ground and he would be saved (see After Effects of  Power Plant Drop Tests).

There was another story at the Muskogee Coal-fired Power Plant where this one mechanic believed that he could stick his finger in a running lawnmower and pull it out so fast that it wouldn’t cut his finger off.  Of course, True Power Plant Men tried to reason with him to convince him that it was impossible…. Then there were others who said… “Ok.  Prove it.”

Think about it.  A lawnmower spins at the same rate that a Turbine Generator spins when it makes electricity.  3,600 time a minute.  Or 60 times each second.  Since the blade in a lawnmower extends in both directions, a blade would fly by your finger 120 times each second.  Twice as fast as the electric current in your house cycles positive and negative.

Typical Power Plant Lawnmower

This means that the person will have to stick their finger in the path of the lawnmower blade and pull it out within 8/1000th of a second…. IF they were able to time it so that they put their finger in the path at the precise moment that the blade passed by.  Meaning that on average, the person only has 4/1000th of a second (or 0.004 seconds) to perform this feat (on average… could be a little more, could be less).

Unfortunately for this person, he was not convinced by the logicians that it was impossible, and therefore proceeded to prove his case.  If you walked over and met this person in the maintenance shop at Muskogee, you would find that he was missing not only one finger, but two.  Why?  Because after failing the first time and having his finger chopped off, he was still so stubborn to think that he could have been wrong, so later he tried it again.  Hence the reason why two of his fingers were missing.

Upon hearing this story, I came to the conclusion that there must be something in the water at Muskogee.  I drank soft drinks as much as possible while I was there on overhaul during the fall of 1984.

As I mentioned in the post Power Plant Rags to Riches, in 1984 I was on overhaul at Muskogee with Ben Davis.  An overhaul is when a unit is taken offline for a number of weeks so that maintenance can be performed on equipment that is only possible when the unit is offline.  During this particular overhaul, Unit 6 at Muskogee was offline.

Ben and I were working out of the Unit 6 Electric shop.  Ben was staying with his friend Don Burnett, a machinist that used to work at our plant when I was a summer help.  Before Don worked there, he worked in a Zinc Smelting plant by Tonkawa, Oklahoma.  Not only was Don an expert machinist, he was also one of the kindest people you would run across. Especially at Muskogee.

I was staying in a “trailer down by the river” by the old plant.  Units one, two and three.  They were older gas-fired units.  I think at the time, only Unit 3 was still operational.  The first 2 weeks of the overhaul, I stayed in a rectory with the Catholic priests in town.  Then David Stewart offered to let me stay in his trailer down by the river for only $50 a week.

After the first couple of weeks it was decided that the 4 week overhaul had turned into a 9 week overhaul because of some complications that they found when inspecting something on the turbine.  So, I ended up staying another month.

When they found out that they were going to be down for an extra 5 weeks, they called in for reinforcements, and that is when I met my new “roomie”, Steven Trammell from the plant in Midwest City.  He shared the trailer for the last 4 weeks of the overhaul.  From that time on, Steven and I were good friends.  To this day (and I know Steven reads this blog) we refer to each other as “roomie”, even though it has been 28 years since we bunked together in a trailer…..down by the river.

I have one main story that I would like to tell with this post that I am saving until the end.  It was what happened to me the day I think I accidentally drank some of the water…. (sounds like Mexico doesn’t it?).  Before I tell that story, I want to introduce you to a couple of other True Power Plant Men that lived next door to “roomie” and I in another trailer down by the river (this was the Arkansas River by the way…. Yeah…  The Arkansas river that flowed from Kansas into Oklahoma… — go figure.  The same river that we used at our plant to fill our lake.  See the post Power Plant Men taking the Temperature Down By The River).

Joe Flannery was from Seminole Plant and I believe that Chet Turner was from Horseshoe Plant, though I could be mistaken about Chet.  I know he was living in south Oklahoma City at the time, so he could have been working at Seminole as well.  These were two electricians that were very great guys.  Joe Flannery had a nickname.  I don’t remember exactly what it was, but I think it was “Bam Bam”.

Yeah. This Bam Bam. From the Flintstones

Joe was very strong, like Bam Bam.  He also reminded me of Goober on the Andy Griffith Show, though Gary Lyons at our plant even resembled Goober more:

Goober from the Andy Griffith Show (played by George Lindsey)

Chet was older than Joe by quite a lot, but I could tell that my Roomie and Joe held him in high esteem… So much so, that I might just wait on the story I was going to tell you about the time that I drank the water in Muskogee to focus more on Chet Turner… otherwise known as Chester A Turner.

I first met Chet when my roomie asked me if I wanted to go out and eat with him and our two trailer neighbors.  On the way to dinner, we had to stop by a used car lot to look at what was available because Chet loved looking at cars.  He had gray hair and was 60 years old at the time.

During the next 5 weeks, we went out to eat almost every night during the week with Chet and Joe.  We explored Muskogee as best we could.  That means that we visited about every car lot in the town.  We also ate at a really good BBQ place where you sat at a picnic table and ate the BBQ on a piece of wax paper.

One night we were invited by another electrician (I think his name was Kevin Davis) to meet him at a Wal-Mart (or some other similar store) parking lot where his son was trying to win a car by being the last person to keep his hand on the car. He had already been doing it for about 4 days, and was exhausted.  It would have reminded me of the times I had spent adjusting the precipitator controls after a fouled start-up, only, I hadn’t done that yet.

I was usually hungry when we were on our way to dinner, and I was slightly annoyed by the many visits to car lots when my stomach was set on “growl” mode.  I never said anything about it, because I could tell that Chet was having a lot of fun looking at cars.

If only I had known Chet’s story when I met him, I would have treated him with the respect that he deserved.  If I had known his history, I would have paid for his meals.  It was only much later that I learned the true nature of Chet, a humble small gray-haired man that seemed happy all the time, and just went with the flow.

You know… It is sometimes amazing to me that I can work next to someone for a long time only to find out that they are one of the nation’s greatest heroes.  I never actually worked with Chet, but I did sit next to him while we ate our supper only to return to the trailers down by the river exhausted from the long work days.

Let me start by saying that Chet’s father was a carpenter.  Like another friend of mine, and Jesus Christ himself, Chester had a father that made furniture by hand.  During World War II, Chester’s mother helped assemble aircraft for the United States Air Force.

While Chet’s mother was working building planes for the Air Force, Chet had joined the Navy and learned to be an electrician.  He went to work on a ship in the Pacific called the USS  Salt Lake City.  It was in need of repairs, so he was assigned to work on the repairs.

While working on the ship, it was called to service, and Chet went to war.  After a couple of battles where the ship was damaged from Japanese shelling it went to Hawaii to be repaired.  After that, it was sent to the battle at Iwo Jima.  That’s right.  The Iwo Jima that we all know about.  Chet was actually there to see the flag being raised by the Marines on Mount Suribachi:

The Iwo Jima Monument

Chet fought valiantly in the battle at Iwo Jima and was able to recall stories of specific attacks against targets that would make your hair stand on end to listen to.  After it was all said and done, Chet was awarded the Victory Medal,

The Victory Medal

Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal,

and the Philippine Liberation Campaign Ribbon.

Philippine Liberation Ribbon

As well as others….

At the time that I knew Chet, I didn’t know any of this about him.  Isn’t that the case so many times in our lives.  Think twice about that Wal-Mart Greeter when you go to the store.  When you see an elderly old man or woman struggling with her cart to put her groceries in her car….  You may be looking at a hero.

I was looking at Chet thinking, “boy.  This guy sure enjoys looking at cars…. I’m hungry.”  This past week I was thinking about writing tonight about an event that took place while Ben and I were on overhaul at Muskogee.  I thought it would be a funny story that you would enjoy.  So, I asked my roomie, “What was the name of the guy that was staying with Joe Flannery in the trailer?  The one with the gray hair?”

He reminded me that his name was Chet Turner.  Steven told me that Chet had died a while back (on January 12, 2013, less than two weeks after I started writing about Power Plant Men) and that he was a good friend.  So much so, that Steven found it hard to think about him being gone without bringing tears to his eyes.  This got me thinking….  I knew Chet for a brief time.  I wondered what was his story.  I knew from my own experience that most True Power Plant Men are Heroes of some kind, so I looked him up.

Now you know what I found.  What I have told you is only a small portion of the wonderful life of a great man.  I encourage everyone to go and read about Chet Turner.  The Story of Chester A. Turner

Notice the humble beginning of this man who’s father was a carpenter.  Who’s mother worked in the same effort that her son did during the war to fight against tyranny.  How he became an electrician at a young age, not to rule the world, but to serve mankind.

Looking at cars has taken on an entirely new meaning to me.  I am honored today to have Chet forever in my memory.