May 09, 2023
New puzzler time. As it always is, right about now.
I stole this from someone named Al, a long, long time ago. So long ago, I don't think it even matters anymore, honestly.
Anyway, here you go.
Long ago, during a war in Southeast Asia, the army wanted to 'deliver ordinances' which means, they wanted to drop bombs on the enemy vehicles that were carrying weapons and supplies. But they couldn't locate these vehicles due to the jungle. It was so thick, the enemy could hide really well in it.
So, they decided way back then, to create a brilliant scheme. They would develop some radio direction-finding equipment that would home in on the radio and TV interference produced by the enemy vehicles' engines. So the government immediately set to work creating this. They got all the top guys, the top engineers at work on this. After a time, the defense contractors created a prototype of this new device. And it was tested successfully. They did all these tests, cars and trucks driving around and the airplane pilots were able to locate them in the tests using this new technology.
But then, when they actually put the technology in the field, in the war zone with actual real-live usage, it failed. It did not work. So, they sent it back to testing, and they worked on it some more. They did a bunch more tests, and each time, the tests were all successful.
So they sent it back into the war zone, and it failed again. It could not locate any enemy vehicles. The thing is acting like the vehicles are not there, but they are. It just can't find them like it could in the tests.
So, at this point, they gather all the big guys, and all the top brass gets together. And they are all trying to figure out what's going on. They are all in this big room talking about it. And just then, an enlisted man who is serving the generals all their lunch says, "Excuse me sir, but I think I know what is going on here."
And the puzzler question is, what did the enlisted man say? What is the answer? And for extra credit, what corrective action was taken to solve the problem?
Good luck.
Time for the answer to this puzzler.
Recap.
Long time ago, there was a war in Southeast Asia. And they could not see the enemy trucks and what they were doing, because of the thick jungle terrain. So they developed some radio direction-finding equipment that would home in on the radio and TV interference produced by the enemy vehicles' engines. So they could use this new tech to find the trucks.
They created it. It worked great on all the test runs. But when they got it into the field, it failed. So, they went back, did more tests, and they were all fine. Took it back into the field, and it failed. It could not detect one enemy convoy.
So they got all the big minds in the room trying to figure out what happened. And an enlisted man says, "Excuse me sirs. I think I know what is going on here."
And the puzzler question is, what did the enlisted man say? What is the answer?
And the answer is, the trucks were Soviet trucks. They're all diesels. They don't produce any radio or TV interference. They don't have any coils or spark plugs. They don't have an ignition system like a regular engine. That's what causes all the interference in your radio. If you don't have that stuff, you don't have any interference.
