Any cool stories out there?

There's a bunch of low ceilings and a TON of mud

Never got caught, but they are a whole lot less forgiving than they are today, so don't do it. They really are dangerous, to boot.

There is an intersection just about under the south entrance to the library that is big enough to drive a truck through. Most of the rest are small, cramped and hot. And lots of dead ends where buildings have been torn down.

Never did mischief from them, just explored. Lots of Very Old Graffiti down there.

Also lots of graffiti in the space between the inner and outer dome of the Academic Building. Cool spiral staircase to get from that point to the roof.

If you're in the corps now you probably don't remember the three cadets that got caught down there back in 2007. I don't want to go into the details, but positions were lost and they had a lot of community service to do - I believe their lawyer kept them from getting kicked out of school.

So don't get caught if you're going to risk it.

I wish I had done it

I went down there a few times. Like they said, a lot of mud, hot areas and low ceilings. In hindsight it probably wasn't the best idea, but it was kinda cool to see all the tags from the 70's and 80's. My buddy was one of the ones that was caught in '07...and yah, after that I never went down. It's probably not worth it anymore

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Lead, follow, or get the hell outta my way.

I got 'caught' in the steam tunnels about midnight on the Saturday night of dead week my first semester fish year with six buddies and one idiot senior. We entered in Dorm 10 and got as far as the steel locked steel gate under the sidewalk in front of the Peterson building when one of my buds realized that we were breaking the beam of an electric eye. We could have calmly walked all the way back to the dorm unharassed but the senior (who claimed to have gone all the way from the quad to Northgate in the tunnels) panicked and ordered everyone to exit at the nearest manhole cover and scatter in pairs. Everyone made it out before the cop got there but I could hear the tires squealing as he rounded the corner by the Trigon as we crossed the arches and went into Dorm 1.

An hour and a half later back at Dorm 10 we were missing three people. We finally decided that at least one person got arrested so we went to the KK and rang the buzzer. We said something stupid like, "we're looking for some friends of ours," and they unlicked the door and said, "come on in, we've been expecting you."

As it turned out, the only one to actually get caught was the senior (who happened to be the outfit CO's old lady). The cop asked him who was with him and he started calling out the name of the fish who had made it out in front of him and was hiding in the planter box by Peterson. After getting to the police station he gave up the names of all of the fish. We'd been there about 30 minutes writing out statements when the CDO arrived in (no kidding) his pajamas. The CDS that day happened to be the JMOI who already despised the senior because he'd had conduct issues before that nearly got him kicked out.

The outcome of the incident was very lenient in my opinion and we owed a lot to the fact that Malon Southerland was the acting Commandant in the fall semester of 1986. He did not view it as a capital offense. The senior (probably owing to the fact that his father was an active duty MajGen) received 18 hours walking tour and three restricted weekends. The rest of us Cadet fish received 12 hours walking tour and two restricted weekends. The one non-reg fish with us got 40 hours of community service.

Had it not been for Malon Southerland's leniency I probably would not have graduated or been commissioned. I fortunately never crossed paths with the JMOI again though I checked in to a couple of duty stations a month or two after he departed.

aaahh, the good old days of roaming the steam tunnels with the Gig Ags. We used to go down in the tunnels between dorm 6 and dorm 8. There was an access hatch there. While we made it over to North Side and also under Kyle Field, usually we headed to the cafeteria in the Commons on the nights that they had served meatloaf in Duncan. We would come up in a utility closet, eat cereal and pie and then return via the same route.

One night we took a freshman with us and he was the last guy in line and let the door of the utility closet shut and it locked. We had our midnight snack and then hit the fire bars on the doors to the outside and took off running in different directions.

We never really came close to getting caught, but we did have one bad incident. One of our guys who was going for the first time got a nasty burn on his arm as we were crawling through the pipes at an intersection. Yep, there really is steam in the pipes in the steam tunnels.

This was all back in the day when getting caught meant sitting weekends and not getting expelled from the University.

One last thing. It was always fun to follow guys down there and wait for them to get about thirty feet down the tunnel and then start throwing golf balls at them. Then would bounce off the concrete walls and there was no way to dodge them. All they could do was cover up and hope for the best.

Went in somewhere around the bugle stand and made it to the Commons...had a coke...no food out...as it was about 1 in the morning. It was very warm down there and somehow we found our way back to where we started. Novelty wore off about 10 minutes into it..this was back in '80. Wasnt a big thing "back in the day"....but was supposed to be good bull, so of course we had to do it. I didnt know it went to Kyle....!

My buddies that I went down there with came to a really big well lit room, and then I happen to look up and see a green light turn red on a motion sensor. Turned around and high tailed it out of there. Don't know if cops showed up because we were out of there pretty dang fast. Grafiti was cool, and really the only reason to go down there IMO, never thought it was worth it to go back down there unless I knew where all the motion sensors were.

I never saw any motion sensors. Coolest thing I saw was the horror movie type rooms under the Academic Building. 8'x8' concrete block rooms with ragged cots and a light hanging from the ceiling.

Definitely muddy.

Too risky these days.

I went down there during dead week, Fall 2000. We went in at the manhole by the cannon plaque. I don't remember a lot, but we did see lots of graffiti from the late 80's and early 90's. I always wanted to go down again, but I didn't feel like risking the consequences of getting caught.

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There's a bunch of low ceilings and a TON of mud

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And spider webs. I went down into the tunnels way back in the 70's when the old Halbouty Geosciences bldg was under renovation. There was a spiral staircase that led all the way down, so I took it...muddy then too.

We had an aircrap unit steal our guidon during Saturday drills. Idiot pisshead had us stab it into ground in quad while we ran. We were ordered to take any action to secure it's return.

We took cherry bombs, buried in large onions, and bombed some rooms in dorm 8, if I recall. No results. We then Bab-O bombed some rooms. No results. We then went into the steam tunnels and shut off the water to the dorm, rigged the valves on the crappers on third floor and stuffed TP into the toilets. Turned water back on. When we fell out of chow next morning, there were rugs draped over shrubs, bike racks, rails....rugs everywhere. One of the fish from that unit told me in class that at least all the water washed some of the Bab-O out of the dorm.

That was my only time in the tunnels....business only. Oh, we found our guidon stuffed into one of our crappers the next day.

I happened to be part of a group of freshman that were escorted down there by the Corps Commander in the mid-90's. We lived in dorm 2 and one of our buddies had swiped some of his stuff and started bargaining. Don't think it was part of the barter but he thought the guy was red ass so he said he'd take us all down. He had a key to the door in Dorm 2 that went down. Mainly stayed under the quad/arches. Some cool graffiti, a couple of places where you can fall pretty deep in holes if you're not careful. I'd love to go back and tour them further.

What's the penalty for people not in school getting caught down there?

Getting arrested/ Trespassing.

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remember the three cadets that got caught down there back in 2007.

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I remember this very clearly. Knew who got replaced by whom and all this ***t that happened. Stupid decision to go down there to do what they were going to do. More stupid that they got caught.

What would be the best way for a non reg to get down there? Just out of curiousity of course.

I can't vouch for the accuracy of this site, but it is interesting! http://tamutunnels.netii.net/

WOW...someone has some time on their hands!

Ulysses90 -- I remember that incident in 1986. Dr. Southerland handled it correctly. The PNS at the time (class of '61) had his own "history" of steam tunnel experience as a cadet (he was an unapologetic Bab-O bomber), and probably gave Dr. Southerland a recommendation for punishment that fit the crime. The JMOI had a bark far worse than his bite, but was pissed that the senior in question had been on thin ice for alleged prior indiscretions, and still led subordinates into the tunnels. I know these to be facts, because I was the SMOI at the time.

Looking back, it seems to me that this kind of risk-taking behavior was thoroughly characteristic of young men who might be called upon to lead combat patrols at night into "indian country", or fly low-level missions using NVGs. While we should publicly discourage it, we should privately be amused at the guys who try it. Guys who never break the rules could be so risk-averse that their courage is never tested. There is something to be said for the guy who breaks the rules and never gets caught, as long as the actions don't involve breaches of integrity. Can't be bold and daring by spending all your time in the library!

SMA, I appreciate your perspective on that incident. As a fish I heard only the rumors of that senior's history and suggestions that were it not for the fact that he had some "familial top-cover" he might not have gotten the chances he did.

I owe the the late PNS another debt of gratitude for having granted me a leave of absence from my NROTC scholarship the following semester to allow me to "regroup" academically and return to the program the following fall. Having the opportunity to get my head screwed on straight was, in hindsight, a pivotal event in my life. I was very sorry to hear of his passing. I have met more than one retired tanker who had served with him who still hold him in the highest regard.

Found another picture of the steam tunnels!

http://texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?topic_id=2008709&forum_id=30

The steam tunnels were the site of one of the funniest incidents that ever occured to me while in the Corps.
My old lady was a fatass. (Came in that way and lost most by the end of fish year)
There was some BQ zip that I had in a class. He farted me off one day and I decided I would pay him back.

So, my old lady got a folgers can, took a dump in it and then added some stink bait, and water and closed her up.

We waited until we thought the time was right and went under (we were pretty familiar with the tunnels by then). We went from dorm 6 to dorm 9. we had never actually gone into dorm 9 but we were sure it was relatively easy like the others. I went first and in the tunnel to 9 were two pipes that were about 14" apart. Both were extremly hot.
Being the lanky kid I was, I had no problem getting through. My old lady was another story.
After going through, I walked on down the tunnel. About halfway down, I all of a sudden heard my old lady screaming like he was getting murdered. I ran back and he was screaming about being stuck and his skin was melting. Sure enough, He was stuck between the two steam pipes. I grabbed both arms and began to pull. After at least a minute we finally got him popped out. He was moaning and groaning and so we took him dirctly into the dorm where we could see better. Sure enough, those pipes blistered up his skin on his back and his belley.
I could not stop laughing. I had to force myself to stop because I kept hearing BQ up above trying to open the door and talking about how they heard voices. after hanging out below the dorm for an hour, we slowly opened the door. ... nobody around. we tried to find the zips room but could not so we decided guilt by association. We put that can on the floor in the middle of the hallway, opened the lid, popped in a lit Short stick of Blasting powder and ran like hell. (out the side door)

We were halfway across the quad when that sucker went off and it rattled every window around.

Saw that BQ zip the next day.... said to him "you smell like shit".....

Looked at me for about 10 seconds until the light came on.

I've been in the steam tunnels. Once before spring break 2003 and again in 2004. I lived on Northside, so my travels were on that part of campus. We entered at a grate next to Hart Hall. Followed a fairly large corridor to Sbisa Hall. There you could go underneath Walton/Moses/FHK, or you could turn right and head towards the Physical Plant. This was the coolest part. There's a two story room with ladder's etc. Follow past this and it'll take you to the garage under Zachary.

That path is fairly safe. If you try to branch off towards the Academic Building, the corridors get narrow and there's not much lighting.

Lots of graffiti from both Corps and Northside dorms dating back to the 80's 90's and even some 2000's. Probably dumb to be down there, but we were young and stupid.

the map on that netii site is spot on.

I guess it wasn't Zachary that we came out of?

The closets under neath the stairs on the first level of the dorms (at least dorm 7 for sure) have stairs that go down into the tunnels. The janitors sometimes leave them open or unlocked if you're lucky. No need to go through manholes.

Logan...

fish Bop resident of Dorm 4 Fountain Hall.

Some janitors could occasionally be bribed to temporary lend their pass key.

(Think they were sorta sympathetic to the plight of the fish.)

[This message has been edited by BeBopAg (edited 12/23/2011 12:31p).]

Logan, I lived on northside in Moses. On that side of campus, only Walton had an entrance to their steam tunnel in their dorm and it was just a small padlocked door.

I went down into them many times and never got caught. We thought it was great fun to turn off the water to Dorm 6.

It really is dangerous to go down there now a days. Pipes break/bust on campus all the time. Here is the picture in the other thread from the tunnel explosion melting the fiber optic cables. Would be a sad day if that happened while a cadet/ student was "exploring" right next to it.

Went down there with some corps buddies during dead week of our pisshead year. I was FDT and there was some cool FDT graffiti on the wall from the early 80's. Got kinda scary when we got lost as forgot how to get back to the grate in front of heldenfels, and it got reallllly hot, and we thought we might pass out. Obviously we found our way back but we had sweated through our pt gear, never wanted to go back down there!

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If you're in the corps now you probably don't remember the three cadets that got caught down there back in 2007.
So don't get caught if you're going to risk it.

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One was my fish buddy

When I was the DV XO, the XO's had a passdown key to the entrance under Duncan. We never went very far, but we did go in a couple of times.