Every morning we conduct a FOD walk down on the parking ramp where our aircraft stay. That is, all hands line up at double-arm interval, and together we walk, staring at the pavement, picking up anything that might get kicked up by rotor wash.

The pavement is concrete using the local bedrock for aggregate, that rock being limestone formed from coral. It's light-colored and speckled. Pavement is laid out in ten foot squares, each square bordered by expansion joints. In the center of every square is a "pad eye", a hole exactly six inches across and four inches deep cast into the concrete. Across the hole is a steel arch an inch think, used to tie down aircraft (or anything else that looks like it ought to be tied down). They also serve as grounding points.

We're in the rainy season here in Okinawa, so typically every pad eye is full of water. Dirt and organic debris accumulate in the bottoms. Marines that have earned punishment are sometimes sent out to clean pad eyes with a plastic spoon.

During today's FOD walk, we noticed a visitor in one of the pad eyes.

It was a terrestrial crab, that presumably hiked 200 yards from the tree line, 30 yards along the flightline, then decided to zip into some sheltering water when big predatory-looking mammals started milling about. (Or maybe he was just nocturnal, and looking for a hangout during the day.) We tried to remove him, but he slipped beneath the steel loop and grabbed the concrete with half of his limbs- the other ones wouldn't fit inside. That's why we wanted to move him: poking out like he was, the poor guy was in danger of getting squished by rolling aircraft or ground support equipment. Still, he was not inclined to move.

I took several images in the cloudy early morning, which was a problematic photographic environment. Seeking better light, I came back at noon. The pad eye was empty... did someone remove the crab? Or did he get up and leave on his own?

Full size image is here. At first I thought the photos were all out of focus or excessivly noisy, then I realized that the carapace had speckled camouflage. This particular image was taken with flash, although that washed out the interesting water coloring.

Posted by: Boviate at 08:06 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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