Twice this week I've been unable to call SOs I am working with because the radios they carried were turned Off.
At the steel mill where I'm contracted we had a ship arrive at the dock to take on several tons of steel beams. Just before the ship tied up to our dock we sent a SO up to the guard shack on the end of the dock on the levee. A half hour later the ships agent pulls up at my window at teh plant's main gate and says he's headed up to the levee to the dock. "No problem," I told him, "We have a guard up there to do the usual sign in stuff before you walk out to the ship". As he got in his car I walked back over to my desk, noted in the log book that the ships agent had been kind enough to check in with me and then I keyed up the radio to let my Officer on the levee know that someone was headed her way. I was unable to get a response from her. I called here a couple of time with no luck. Our Facility Security Officer (FSO) who is a in house SO/EMT, not a contractor like me, was at teh ship confering with the captian and ensuring that all MARSEC, Coast Guard and other paperwork was taken care of. The FSO calls me on the radio and says he's almost finished on the ship and will check to see what's up with my other officer as he exits the dock. About 10 minutes later he tells me that he found her, parked in her care behind the guard booth, asleep and the radio on the seat next to her, Turned Off. Later when I ask her about it she says when she got the radio she never thought to make sure it was turned on and never thought to perform a radio check.
Last night I tried to call the Officer on the levee to inform him of some info regarding the expected departure of the ship. I was unable to get him on the radio. I could look out across the plant and see the lights on in the booth on the levee. As I was about to seen my patrol officer (who happened to be the one who had been sleeping the first night) up to see if he was dead or alive he called me to tell me that the ship pilot had just been up to his booth with the news I had been trying to send for 10 minutes. When I asked how come he hadn't been answering his radio he replied, get this, He turned it off while he set it in it's charging base on his desk.
So this SO with over 3 years working for our company believes that you can't leave the portable radio turned on while it's charging.
Sometimes I want to bang my head against the nearest wall. But I'm just a shift supervisor. I log it all down and pass it on to my supervisor in the morning.
At the steel mill where I'm contracted we had a ship arrive at the dock to take on several tons of steel beams. Just before the ship tied up to our dock we sent a SO up to the guard shack on the end of the dock on the levee. A half hour later the ships agent pulls up at my window at teh plant's main gate and says he's headed up to the levee to the dock. "No problem," I told him, "We have a guard up there to do the usual sign in stuff before you walk out to the ship". As he got in his car I walked back over to my desk, noted in the log book that the ships agent had been kind enough to check in with me and then I keyed up the radio to let my Officer on the levee know that someone was headed her way. I was unable to get a response from her. I called here a couple of time with no luck. Our Facility Security Officer (FSO) who is a in house SO/EMT, not a contractor like me, was at teh ship confering with the captian and ensuring that all MARSEC, Coast Guard and other paperwork was taken care of. The FSO calls me on the radio and says he's almost finished on the ship and will check to see what's up with my other officer as he exits the dock. About 10 minutes later he tells me that he found her, parked in her care behind the guard booth, asleep and the radio on the seat next to her, Turned Off. Later when I ask her about it she says when she got the radio she never thought to make sure it was turned on and never thought to perform a radio check.

Last night I tried to call the Officer on the levee to inform him of some info regarding the expected departure of the ship. I was unable to get him on the radio. I could look out across the plant and see the lights on in the booth on the levee. As I was about to seen my patrol officer (who happened to be the one who had been sleeping the first night) up to see if he was dead or alive he called me to tell me that the ship pilot had just been up to his booth with the news I had been trying to send for 10 minutes. When I asked how come he hadn't been answering his radio he replied, get this, He turned it off while he set it in it's charging base on his desk.

Sometimes I want to bang my head against the nearest wall. But I'm just a shift supervisor. I log it all down and pass it on to my supervisor in the morning.
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