Foam test e-mail overflows with perception problems

  • Published
  • By 28th Bomb Wing Public Affairs and
  • Air Combat Command Public Affairs
ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. --  Mark Twain once said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” In today’s e-mail society, that is literally true, as Airmen here have discovered. 

Photos of a B-1 hangar here filled with more bubbles than a dinosaur-sized hot tub, complete with people standing on top of rafters in the building as foam rises, have been circulating around e-mail inboxes with a subject line of “Building Fire Alarm Foaming Gone WRONG!!!” 

However, the truth may seem stranger than fiction. The hangar was filled with foam on purpose. 

The misleading e-mail has caused considerable work in correcting wrong information, said 1st Lt. Carrie Kessler, 28th Bomb Wing Public Affairs deputy chief. 

A modern high-expansion foam system was placed in the hangar to replace an aging fire suppression system, said Lt. Col. Navnit Singh, 28th Civil Engineer Squadron commander. The contractor responsible for installing the system submitted a plan for a test procedure prior to installation, which was approved, he added. 

The test of the new foam system was conducted Aug. 23. The required coverage occurred within one minute of the system being activated. The test was so successful the foam reached the observation platform where officials were documenting the procedure. 

The Air Force required a minimum of one meter of foam to be achieved in four minutes or less. For testing purposes, the foam was allowed to disperse for the full four minutes.
The observers were surprised at how quickly the system generated the fire suppressing foam, said Colonel Singh. 

The system worked so well, the exterior door of the hangar was opened before the test was fully completed. This resulted in the photos of the amount of foam inside and outside of the hangar. 

The fire suppression system would be responsible for helping protect vital mission-essential assets and helping safeguard Airmen’s lives. 

It exceeded Air Force standards, Colonel Singh said. 

The misrepresentation of this test has raised the level of awareness about the far-reaching effects of e-mail and technology. 

Master Sgt. Dana Rogers, 28th Communications Squadron superintendent of network security, said e-mails such as the one depicting the foam test “misrepresent our capabilities” and can even damage computer networks. 

“You think it’s so funny, so you send it to 10 people. Then, they send it to 10 more. This takes up an extremely large amount of e-mail space and can lead to the loss of a resource,” he said. 

Another aspect of e-mails that miscommunicate facts is the amount of time someone may have to take in order to set the record straight. An e-mail that took two seconds to send caused a large number of man-hours to fix. 

There is definitely the potential for a loss in duty hours for people in leadership positions, Sergeant Rogers said. 

Mr. Mark Wheeler, 28th CES deputy commander agreed. 

“A CES commander’s schedule is very demanding,” said Mr. Wheeler. “Any time spent responding to an incident like this is a drain on a very precious resource: time.” 

Mr. Wheeler said Colonel Singh spent more than 20 hours investigating this incident, and there were many more hours of investigation done by other members of the squadron who were attempting to re-trace steps and gather facts that would lead to the truth of the matter surrounding the pictures of the foam test. 

Instead of focusing on this circulating e-mail, Mr. Wheeler said Colonel Singh’s time could have been better spent. 

“Lt. Col. Singh and the entire squadron have spent too much time on this issue,” he explained. 

The lesson from this issue is Airmen should think about what they are sending out before hitting the “send” button. 

“Before you create an e-mail based upon some pictures you have or partial information you have come across, you should ask yourself if you are really in a position to explain what is happening and why,” Lieutenant Kessler said. “The Air Force of today is extremely busy, and dealing with an issue like this takes us away from focusing on the mission and taking care of our Airmen.”