The Main Inquiry - Brian Deis (beach read .TXT) 📗

that we could talk the next day. He expected that the Mobil Filters plant should have a test for us to run on the filters in inventory. I committed to follow up with them the next morning.

As Corporal Fergisson and I made our way back to the dining area to get some food, I wondered what the chances were that there were bad filters in our planes right now.

“Corporal,” I said with a very serious tone, “if I needed your help all the time for a few days, who would be the right one to ask?”

“Sir,” he began, “you would need to see the sergeant because he’d be the head man for all us Marines, Sir.” Everything he said began and ended with sir and his posture straightened every time he said it.

“Great, why don’t we head his way now, and see what I can arrange?”

“Sir, I will take y’all right there, Sir.” On the way, he wanted to know what I had for him to do that would take his full time. “Sir, I got lots of folks that need me to ‘hepem’ get around, Sir.” I told him that he was key to my ability to talk to the many departments that I would need to see. I would spend too much time trying to find their offices if I did not have him.

“Sir, that’s mighty kind of you, and it’s near about lunch time so I’ll take y’all right to the mess to see him, Sir.” And we did that without delay. Soon, Corporal Fergisson was mine, and things started to speed up a little.

Lunch was with Coswell, as usual, and we talked at length about the loss of the plane. I brought him up to date on the filter issue to get his take on what I had learned. He agreed that we should think about this as the cause of the cold shot as well as the plane lost at Miramar. We started to think about what to do and decided we needed the information from the manufacturer before we could know anything for sure. We ended the daily lunch with some strange thoughts from his fertile mind. He was my comic relief and managed to have a new joke every day. I spent a lot of time with him and it always did my head some good. Fergisson and I went on to the next thing after lunch and I was still laughing at the dirty joke of the day.

This filter problem could easily cause the loss of planes and lives. I needed to get this problem cleared up in short order. By the time I finished the chicken and dumpling lunch, I had the first few steps thought out to begin the work at hand.

I began with a visit to the ship’s supply officer to get read in on the process he used to handle the orders for parts. Commander Glinter was the senior man in the supply department, responsible for an untold number of details that make the ship run. The Commander told me that the question depended on the destination of the parts. If the order was for the ship, it was entirely in his system, and he tracked any item from order to the signature that received the part onboard. If it was for the wing, then the order could only come from the wing supply officer. How the wing supply officer’s system worked was a mystery to him.

“Your supply officer must be using some system for the parts, but I don’t know what it is. I have a signature card that controls approvals on purchase orders that must have 40 names on it.” He stated further that the names change even on an individual part. He obviously thought that there was a need for some organization in that part of the supply system. I thanked him for being a great help in my understanding of how the system operated.

“Are you doing research for the board of inquiry on the cost reduction issue from fleet supply?” he asked.

“No, I responded, “I am looking into the supply chain to answer questions from Chief Landsome.”

“That seems odd, since he is one of the people that can order parts from me without the signature of LT Ward,” he said. So, the chief can order things and not tell the wing supply officer. As the guy in charge of parts and supplies, I would have thought he had approval for everything. I know LT Ward and his ability with the wing’s supplies seemed to be very high. I need to have a conversation with him about the filters, without his awareness which part I was talking about.

LT Ward was in the office when Fergisson and I arrived. I asked if he could give me a few minutes for train-the-pilot time. He was the sort who would always help if he could, so he asked me to sit down and he would do his best.

“I am trying to understand what the supply system can do to lower the cost of operation, and to get more efficient with all the parts that flow through here“ I said, hoping he would not follow up on that part of the conversation. He immediately dashed my hopes and inquired what part of the system I wanted to know about.

“It is a series of parts for the P and W jets in our planes,” I responded. “I may need to look at the inventory and run a test or two to be sure they are safe to go into the planes.”

“I understand, Sir, and I will tell you what I know. It is a complicated system and I am new at running my end. I have enough requests here to keep me busy for weeks,” he said, with a look of confusion and maybe a little fear. I hated to press this young clerk, but I was sure he had information I needed.

 

Imprint

Text: Brian Deis TXu-2-129-227 2/28/19
Cover: Brilan Deis
Editing: Anne Brewer
Publication Date: 02-11-2019

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