European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 21, 1958, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Col Merton of pm Petroleum distribution command at Fig if in scraper trap of system to clean inferior of r system i from in working under contract with concern the so Clele Des trans Par called for essentially a trans method of station to move the product by rather than by railway or Merton co of the pm Petroleum distribution with head toasters at wader supervision of col c the of the pipeline stir Cash his Job comparable to 4fcai of a major Oil distribution handle a variety of says they include aviation motor Jet diesel fuel log cleaning lubricating oils the product delivered to at the Donges terminal on Low we want to it along the be we cached use it for transmission and it then foes through the Trail High Caw pumping stations and into the main 3j00 pounds construction on the line started Fife Maio line was com in june of at line there Are Tan form the various May 4unc further Lude Railhead Fracul Welt for f 5f of joint con the of Ujj Are Stilt Teu of Wie Toon Jet 1865 nonmedical four of which were spent a worked and ii Sinatra other countries of the far working on a Lyleine at tank farm in june from i went right up the line to near following a direct route As much As possible we put the pipe at least 40 inches under the sur face through All sorts of when we Cate to Rock we blasted through and then Laid the pipe on a four Inch Sand after which we we went under Rivers and highways and through swamps to get the Job snakes were another according to in after i tangled with a King cobra i gained a healthy respect for he we dont have anything like that in but we ran that pipeline through some swamp lands hat were fairly Well infested with the european pit this Snake does not grow very big but he is a thoroughly mean customer and we had to be continually Alert not to get capt Grover currently As signed to Neucom spent 18 months on the pipeline with the title of chief of Lorf in effect Hie assignment was planning and trouble shooting to get the preliminary kinks out of the the assignment involved control of re questing product from the we planned far ahead As six months in ordering then there were the usual operating problems involved in receiving and transferring the product and coordinating the movement with said a West Asmus also has mrs in Petroleum engineering from the University of although now in full the Vari Ous tank still have a new took about some buildings Are not quite com the Zarur around the tanks is still at some of the me Shalls and other facilities Are still in process despite relative the Mission of transporting the Petro Leum requirements of the and Allied in Europe goes Forward on civilian Douglas currently on leave of absence from a major pipe line is chief of the pipeline h4 the product and co Trail in line of duty Shehas gained a Good perspective of statistics concerning the we have about people working on the main line from the West coast of France to the Vicinity of he Hje pipeline is also versatile in thut we can have several operations going at for while the main is running one Type of fuel we Oan move other from one area to another with in the individual tank can also pump Back Down the line As Well As another Veteran Oil Man is employed As terminal superintendent at the Donges he is Cecil who retired after 30 service with one of the to folds major Oil in Oil Industry Thompson described the process by which the line is kept we put a pig into the line and Send it through to a destination further he describing the he it is essentially a tight fitting Piston which is moved along the line by the pressure of the product behind it is something like loading a torpedo into a tube to get the pig on the theoretically we could run a pig right through the it is equipped with brushes and scrapers which thoroughly clean the inside Walls of the the different types of Petroleum products Are pumped through the system so Many barrels at a time and Are drained off into storage tanks at the Point of re Thompson some mixture of types occurs in the process but it is negligible and does not affect the Quality of the accurate timing of operations is another Factor in insuring purity of this Calls for split second Tim ing in turning on or off and by exercising close supervision we can insure that the various products do not become we run continuing lab analyses As a double safety is a Factor in any Oil pipe line no smoking is the first essential ground Rule and in the various installations of the army pipeline system across France this Rule is observed by automatic fire and Security guards patrol the tank farms on a and our fire and Security program Doceti not end there Are special which must be taken when we Are moving or storing Jet for too High a rate of flow could cause Static so our various technicians have to be continually Alert to this and other we conductor own safety inspections regularly and other agencies interested in Security and safety often drop in on us that keep us on our but the Best safety Factor in Petroleum handling is the conscious precisely the Type person we have working on our pipe v team Elizabeth Fern and members of the stars and stripes