Choose your words carefully!

I often instructed (I never use the word "taught" because "to teach" requires one "to learn", and that did not always happen...), drivers to use appropriate verbiage when working around military vehicles.

When acting as a ground-guide or assisting someone working on a large, heavy, dangerous vehicle or object, and you want them to "stop" doing something, consider using words other than, "No!"

"No!" sounds like "Go!" or "Slow!"

"Go!" sounds like "Whoa!" or "No!"

If they run over your "Toe!" the driver might "Ho!" and stop right there!

It never helps to hear someone say, "I thought you said ______!"

People working together need to know what the other is saying and meaning!

I won't get into hand and arm signals for assisting drivers when backing. That's another area that I'm sure we have all seen some crazy variations. It's still a good topic.

Please have your "helpers" use words like "Stop!" or "Forward" or "Back" or "Easy" instead or those homonyms that can cause injury.

I only bring this point up because of my own "near misses" with disaster because of a "mis-communication" in a noisy or busy environment.

I watched this very thing happen 20 feet in front of me. If your not sure stop and wait for another direction. or get out and look for your self.

I was always taught to use hand signals ONLY, And yes there is a manual on hand signals. That way there is no confusion. Just make sure the one guiding knows the same signals as you.

As a hearing impaired person , I find myself going overboard when it comes to getting communications clear. You are so very right about words sounding the same but meaning totally opposite of what was intended----aggravate the situation with high background noise and you end up with a VERY real chance for disaster.

I drive Log truck for a living and we use CB radios to call out markers on the mountain to keep track of where all the "players" are. When you say "empty at the 6 marker", everyone knows you are headed into the woods toward the loader. "Loaded at the 5" lets everyone know you are headed out--toward town.
We had a FNG that got into a habit of saying "Unloaded" when headed toward the loader.
After a couple of close calls the boss got him educated.

Thanks for posting--this may save someone some grief.

Good topic but unfortunatly most all of our trucks are far to noisy to avoid verbal mis-comunication

My uncle was the ARMY, in a bar in Korea and a guy told him to "SHUT UP"and he thougt the guy said "get up". The missunderstanding cost my uncle a steel plate in his head. Went thru the war w/o a scratch then this happened.

One problem I have found with people using radios is that they start talking before the mic is keyed, I have learned to repeat my message if it is short like these

RodUSMC1962 said:

My uncle was the ARMY, in a bar in Korea and a guy told him to "SHUT UP"and he thougt the guy said "get up". The missunderstanding cost my uncle a steel plate in his head. Went thru the war w/o a scratch then this happened.

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I hate to hear stories like that happening to soldiers, or anyone for that matter.

Hence, the reason waterfowl hunters say, "Take 'em!" instead of "Duck!" when it is time to open fire.

(Picture that for a moment).

quickfarms said:

One problem I have found with people using radios is that they start talking before the mic is keyed, I have learned to repeat my message if it is short like these

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This is especially common with the older battery-operated vacuum tube based radios, which often take about a second to start transmitting after the operator keys the mic.

When I was flying Starlifters we sat through a cockpit voice recording and computer simulation of a C130 that crashed. The crew was doing a max effort climb and when they got too slow the pilot told the engineer, "Takeoff power." The problem was the engineer heard, "Take off power", and he did. You can imagine what happened, the C130 already hanging on the props and then cutting power. The lesson for us was standardizing terminology.

Sorry, as a retiree I think I'm supposed to bore everyone with old war stories...

One big difference between the indian culture and the currant american culture is the indians listened to and respected their elders and the currant american generation for the most part doesn`t. Go ahead with your stories, as long as you can.

I can add, never use a person named Bill Peasley for a ground guide. During one particular recovery Said Peasley was acting as ground guid as Veh # 1 was towing Veh#2 up a ramp onto a trailer. He was supposed to signal stop when the towed vehicle was completely on the trailer. He was not supposed to alow veh# 2 to make contact with veh#1 that was already on the trailer and chained down. After veh# 2 is firmly inbedded in veh#1 did he indicate stop. We then surveyed the mishap and asked why he alowed the condition to transpire. His excuse was that the other driver" didn't give him fair warning that he wanted him to signal" Just beware of the mental ability of all personal involved in any operation. They say a room full of monkeys operating a typewriter will be able to make a readable sentence. Enough said

If the driver can see the ground guide, couldn't/shouldn't hand signals be included? We have radios but don't have headsets (no time to PTT) so we use hand signals when directing heavy equipment.

I insist on using just hand signals, and the only verbal signal is for "stop" Trying to yell over the noise of the truck has the driver straining to hear, and the guide losing his voice.

Plus "stop" sounds like "cop" which stands for slam that puppy into drive and GET OUTTA THERE! I kid, I kid.

Mainsail said:

When I was flying Starlifters we sat through a cockpit voice recording and computer simulation of a C130 that crashed. The crew was doing a max effort climb and when they got too slow the pilot told the engineer, "Takeoff power." The problem was the engineer heard, "Take off power", and he did. You can imagine what happened, the C130 already hanging on the props and then cutting power. The lesson for us was standardizing terminology.

Sorry, as a retiree I think I'm supposed to bore everyone with old war stories...

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That is a very good story , well not for the C130 crew but. I can see the BIG differance between "take-off power" and "take off power". Some thing so simple made a plane crash.

Indeed, the same is true for posting in the forums.

This is a valuable lesson for many. I tend to take my Jeep off-road and do some rock crawling from time to time. When I go with a new group of people I have never been with I will quickly decide if I want to ever go with that group again based upon communication between spotters and drivers. A good group will usually have a discussion on proper communication when there is someone who has not been with that gruop before.

She had a big Dickins Cider.

You see how that could go bad fast.

Believe it or not, this was a failure in hand signals too. When flying heavy transport aircraft the pilot that is flying puts his hand on the thrust/throttle levers and initiates the power change. If he wants takeoff power, he says "takeoff power" and pushes the levers forward and the flight engineer makes the final adjustment. He is guarding them so there is no mistake by having his hand on them.

Mainsail said:

When I was flying Starlifters we sat through a cockpit voice recording and computer simulation of a C130 that crashed. The crew was doing a max effort climb and when they got too slow the pilot told the engineer, "Takeoff power." The problem was the engineer heard, "Take off power", and he did. You can imagine what happened, the C130 already hanging on the props and then cutting power. The lesson for us was standardizing terminology.

Sorry, as a retiree I think I'm supposed to bore everyone with old war stories...

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This is always a great topic to cover with drivers and personnel who are around them often as ground guides, spotters etc. When I was in the Army, I was an AMVI instructor driver and was responsible for instructing new drivers on how to operate M915a3's with 30 and 40 foot trailers in Germany. Anytime I was working with a student on backing, or even going forward in tight areas, I would always talk face to face with the student and go over hand signals and voice commands before moving the vehicle so there was no confusion in those critical moments. Also its the GG's job to maintain visibility with the driver and if the driver loses sight of him, he should immediately stop the vehicle. As the OP stated, and so many others, miscommunication can be costly and even deadly. Always have a plan, and talk it over before moving equipment around. Better safe then sorry.