Andy Padgett - Apollo Down Range Trip
I was flying on Lt. Col. Charles Hyde's plane, when we got to Fiji, the other ARIA and the C-141 with the maintenance team, were not going to catch up with us till the next day. Charlie ask if I would mind staying at the motel with the flight crew since he had to pay for all of the rooms they had reserved there. Otherwise he would have to pay for me a room at the motel the enlisted men usually stayed at. I said "no problem."
The next morning I shaved, packed up my shaving gear in my ditty bag, had breakfast with the crew chief and his assistant and drove to the airport, after we launched Charlie's plane we went back to the motel to brush our teeth, pack up and move to the other motel.
The motel consisted of three buildings, the office building which included the restaurant/bar and an equipment room, and two buildings with the rooms, two stories each. We were on the second floor of the building that was up the hill from the office.
When I got to my room my razor was beside the sink and had hair on it, I picked it up and started to go to the manager's office when the crew chief ask where I was going, I told him what happened and said I was going to get the manager to buy me a new razor. When I got to the office I told the girl I needed to talk to the manager, she ask what room I was in and I told her, she pulled it up on the computer and on the intercom told the manager Sgt. Padgett wanted to speak to him, he said send him in.
He said "What can I do for you Sgt. Padgett." I explained to him what happened and he said "What do you expect me to do about it"? I said "Buy me a new razor." When he quit laughing I said "Does that mean you are not going to buy me a new razor"? He said "Sgt. Padgett that is just one of the hazards of staying in a hotel." I thanked him, laid my razor on his desk and walked out.
I went to the car and got my tool pouch out of the trunk and walked back up the hill to my room. The crew chief was standing on the balcony and ask what the manager said, I told him and said he'd might as well go inside and listen to the music. He said "What are you doing with your tools"? I said "I have work to do."
There was no TV but they had six stations of music that you could select from to listen to. The outlets in the room were European style, two slots that took round plugs and each one had a switch to turn it on and off with, I believe it was 220V. I turned all of them off, and on each one except the one under the music console, I shorted out with safety wire then turned them on and blew the fuse in it. The music console was built into the wall and went through to the next room, it had a speaker and a switch with six positions on it to select the station you wanted to listen to.
