An Exploded Repair

The tank exploded, and that shouldn’t have surprised the man repairing it.

Donald L. Hall drove trucks out of Dawson Creek in 1942. He also fixed trucks. Driving, he brought up the rear of his convoy, piloting a truck full of spare parts and tools. When trucks broke, he fixed them.

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When the gas tank on a 6 X 6 truck sprung a leak, Donald removed it. Normally he would have filled it with water before working on it, but he had no water. He did have a portable air compressor, so he blew the tank out with air.

And then he tried to solder the leak… The solder refused to flow where he needed it and he broke out a blow torch. Straddling the tank, sitting on the end away from the leak, concentrating, he barely noticed the fellow standing in front of him.

He remembered a “terrific boom” and a blast of flame. He remembered going airborne for a time before he landed on his rump and slid for a few feet.

The man in front of him lost his eyebrows and some hair from his neck. Solder decorated the bill of Donald’s cap and the red bumps on his face looked like a case of measles. The gas tank died. One end blew out completely and the “shape of my legs were on the sides of it.”

The tank went to the dump. And Donald decided in later years that he had been the first astronaut.

Should my gas tank develop a leak, I believe I’ll find someone a bit older and wiser than Donald to fix it.