WSA - Weapons Storage Area, RAF Bentwaters, October 2001
1. Could this be what is informally known as
"hot row?" I think so... but I heard that people
working there never called it that. However, on 15 July 2003, I received the following anonymous (presumably for security reasons) email: "That picture of the hot row is the hot row, that is what we called it in 1981-82. The view is from the AFTF towards the SPCCDs tower."
2. Inside one of the smaller blast-proofed storage units on the right
of the picture above.
3. Another shot of the inside of the smaller storage units in "Hot Row".
Weapons Inspection Building
4. In case you didn't know what was being lifted
by the hoist, there's a sign on the wall to help you!
5. I THINK this is an office in the
Weapons Inspection building but it might be elsewhere in the WSA.
Did you work here?
6. This art work is on the floor of the Weapons
Inspection building.
7. Wall art - the picture gives an indication
of the type of weapons being inspected here... but, as David
Galvan comments, "Regardless of drawing (looking like a nuclear detonation),
the A-10 has no nuclear capability."
8. Wall art - a 'warthog' weapons inspector.
Can anybody tell me what the 'warthog' is holding in his left hand?
And what
is the significance of the grey box to his right (our left)?
We have the complete and comprehensive answer, see below.
From Randy R.
Pischel rpischel(a)NICAO-ONLINE.ORG
In the WSA picture section I know what the warthog is holding and what the box
means - I was there when that mural was painted!
He's holding a magnifying glass because he is an inspector.
The other item
is an inspector's stamp. The inspector's stamp is always a triangle and
in it is the inspector's number. Whenever an inspector looks an item over
he stamps the paperwork with his stamp, and there is also a duplicate press-stamp
for stamping lead seals. These are sometimes decorated by the individual
so they can pick their stamp out of the lockbox easily, hence the skull
and feathers.
When any item is inspected the corner of the box is painted
black.
Note the box is just a generic inspected box with the corner painted
black.
When you pull an item for use you are supposed to pull the "black
corners" boxes first as you know they have been inspected.