THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510270181
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Eric Feber
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
When U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt praised the Naval Security Group Activity Northwest's environmental work, holding it up to national praise during his recent visit to Chesapeake, no two people were prouder than Pam Couch and Dick Turner.
Couch is the base's civilian natural resources specialist, and Turner is the facility's civilian environmental engineer.
``I'm honored, very honored,'' said a smiling Couch, after hearing Babbitt praise the base's work in ecosystems management. ``We're proud of our wetlands protection and endangered species protection. We're not unique, though, other military facilities have good programs like these.''
Couch and Turner accompanied Babbitt during his whirlwind one-hour tour of the facility's environmental successes.
``We've been headed for this since 1988,'' Turner said about the amount of work it took to make the NSGA Northwest a model of environmental responsibility, ``Working within the federal system takes time. But we got a lot of great support from the base command and its personnel.''
Couch and Turner now point to a new aspect of protection needed at the base, thanks to some recent archeological discoveries.
``Now we're also into cultural preservation,'' Couch said.
A recent dig on base land revealed several artifacts from the late 1700s, including the site of a longhouse, several pottery shards and a wrought-iron broad hoe. Halloween mishaps
For the past 10 years, things have usually run smooth for the Northwest River Park Ghost Train.
The seasonal attraction has become a Chesapeake Halloween tradition, having taken hundreds on frightful trips past horror-filled scenes and skits.
Throughout most of the train's 10-year run, park supervisor Bill Petree and volunteer J. Scott Hasty have been on board.
``It's very satisfying to hear the people scream and then laugh, having a good time,'' Hasty said. ``But the scariest part of the whole process is to work on people's minds and imaginations.''
But for Hasty, Petree and the other Ghost Train volunteers, the scariest times for them are when things go wrong.
``Embarrassing moments? Let's see,'' Hasty recalled. ``Once we had a flat tire on the truck pulling the cars. One of the rangers had to drive all over Chesapeake, talking to different farmers looking for a special tire.''
Another time the truck simply ran out of gas, leaving a train full of impatient passengers waiting to be entertained and stranded in a very dark part of the park.
``Then, of course, you've always got kids and teens saying things like, `This isn't scary at all,' and people talking back to you,'' Hasty said. ``And the worst, the worst? It was a group of Girl Scouts, believe it or not. At first they kept telling us they weren't scared and what a bunch of baloney it all was, and then when they were scared they screamed and they screamed.''
Then there was the time when all of the strategically placed flash pots went off all at once.
Each of the more than 100 flash pots consists of a fuse with its glass top pulled off, stuffed with a little gunpowder and electronically controlled by a handmade switch board. The main board features a master switch, which sends current to each individual flash pot switch. Turn on the master switch, then flip one of the individual ones to ``on'' you get a flash and a ``poof!''
On an opening night, someone added too much gunpowder to each flash pot. On top of that, the switches for each individual flash were already placed in the ``on'' position so when the main switch was turned on, well, you can guess the rest.
``Everything went WHOOM!,'' Petree said with a laugh. ``We could hear it all over the park. Some people thought it was an earthquake. What a special effect! We'll never forget that one as long as we live. I think the people that were there that night will never forget it, either.'' by CNB