ANST - Ramps and Real Men

[Keith Hood]

>In a message dated 98-11-12 11:49:11 EST,  Tomonaga writes:
>
>>The draft does include provisions about 
>>safety standards for devices that are supposed to carry people, and 
>>handrail requirements are in there. 
>>
>>       Tomonaga
>

>Handrails?  Seems to me when your going up a ramp at Gulf Wars with a 
sword in
>one hand and a shield in the other, the last thing you need is a 
handrail. :>)
>Maybe a 2x4 bumper cushion on either side but a handrail--- Nope, REAL 
men
>(generic use so as not to offend our wonderful feminine fighters) would 
never
>use the thing.
>
>    Baron Bors of Lothian
>    Baron Loch Soillier


Oh, boy ... <g>

Sensible mode:
   I was just passing on some information about what I had read.  
Personally I don't care about it if the ramp is wide enough.  If I get 
on a ramp that I know doesn't have handrails, I would think it's my 
responsibility to stay on it.  Everybody who takes part in the assault 
needs to watch out for, and maybe help catch, anyone falling off ramps, 
but I figure I knew the job was dangerous when I took it.

Colorful mode:
   "Real men"?  *Shields*?  A _REAL_ man goes up an assault ramp with 
his life held between his teeth because he needs both hands on the hilt 
of his sword.  How can you properly scream and leap when your're 
unbalanced by the weight of a barn door slung on one arm?  And as for 
bumper cushions, that's what Trimarans are for.  :-)

Serious note:
   It would be a good idea to instruct everyone to give a particular 
call when they feel themselves coming off a height, to alert those on 
the ground.  In my mountaineering days, we were trained to yell 
"Falling" if we felt ourselves peeling off the rock face.  It alerted 
the belay man and made everybody else take cover in case debris broke 
loose.  People on the ramps could really use a call that signals other 
people to be ready to help catch them.


     Tomonaga


-- 
A long bow and a strong bow,
And let the sky grow dark.
The nock to the cord, the shaft to the ear,
And a foreign king for a mark!

        -- Stolen from "The Song of the Bosonian Archers" --
               By Robert E. Howard, who should be
                 the patron saint of Ansteorra


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