1965-1969
USMC Viet Nam Vet.
At the end of the school year in 1965 I joined the USMC. What did anyone know of
Viet Nam then. After boot camp I attended a class A Electronic school which was
located at the Marine Corp Recruit Depot (MCRD) in San Diego. I worked as an
Electronic Repair Technician. If you could wear it on your back, or it fit into a jeep I
fixed it. That was the year that the Corps was gearing up for Viet Nam. After
graduating 5th in the class of 65, I went to 29 Palms Marine Corp Base which is out in the
high desert of California. This base is a target and practice range for tanks and
missles.
Before catching a
plane out of Travis AFB I made a stop at home before heading off to Viet Nam. Amazing how vividly I still recall the flight(s) to Viet Nam. Was
a prop plane. Nor will I forget my first or last days in Viet Nam. I arrived in Da Nang
about 2 AM on a dark December night, hearing the rockets landing not far enough away. That
year I served with the 2nd Battalion 11th Marines. An artillery unit (105MM, 155MM
cannons) that supported 5th Marines Ist Marine Division. This was early during the Viet
Nam War years. I was there from December 1966 to December 1967. We would move into a new
area, secure the land, and build compounds, fill sandbags, lay barbed wire, plant claymore
mines, listening devices, build command bunkers, wire up the compounds and move on,
turning the area over to the Army. I also remember the day I left. Some dummy drove a 5
ton truck 1/2 way off a small bridge. Backed up the traffic for hours. A miracle that we
were not attacked. Happy to have made it home alive, even if the public was not thrilled
with us returning vets in those days. May God bless those that served. Some day I hope to
be able to visit the Memorial in Washington. Not sure how I will react, but still need to
make that trip.
Returning to Camp Pendelton, in California, I was assigned to the 4th Marine Division
Cadre. The Cadre was made up of active marines serving in the Marine Corps Reserve
division. We were heavily trained as instructors in case the reserves were ever activated.
In the summer months we taught classes to the reserves and served as the officials in war
games.
1969-1974 - Pacific
Telephone
I went to work for Pacific Telephone in the bay area, where I spent 5 years as a frameman
and switchman working inside plant. This gave me an extensive background in telephone
equipment and cabling. Working the swing shift most of those years gave me the opportunity
to go back to college. Although this was a good job, my timing was not the best, again.
Shortly after joining the Telephone Company, Ma Bell was directed by the government to put
more women into the field that I was in. At that time I must have trained about 20 women
on the switching equipment, then watched them get promoted. Under those conditions, I was
looking at 5 more years without the possibility of a promotion. So, I left for greener
pastures and moved to Lake Tahoe.
1974-1976 Cable TV Lake
Tahoe, Nevada
I worked for the local Cable TV Company performing an audit of the cable television system
from Incline Village (Home of the Ponderosa) to Tahoe City in North Lake Tahoe. Not only
did I learn about the Cable TV industry and how it works but I got to see, and work
outdoors in some of the most beautiful country in the world. I left Lake Tahoe to help a
friend and his father build their a new home in over looking Lake Tullock and the small
towns of Copperopolis and Poker Flat in the California Gold country. These were my nail
pounding days.
About the same time that the house was completed, my
brother got transferred to Alaska where he worked for Standard Oil. I joined him for the drive to Alaska. Talk about an adventure,
3600 miles 1500 of it gravel across the tundra of Yukon and Alaska. Alaska was just
too cold for this California beach bum,
Back in my native California, I went to the Bay Valley Technical Institute in Santa Clara. Graduating with a BS in Electronics, (3rd in the class).
Time to settle down, got married and had a family. If I had only know of the explosion of Silicon Valley and how to buy land or stocks. I will say that it was an exciting time living and working in Silicon Valley during the 1970's and 1980's.
1977-1979 National Semiconductor.
Working with OEM Memory Group we made memory boards for about 50 different companies. Take
into account that at that time (76-79) Memory chips were only 2K, 4K and a whopping 16K.
We developed, and built the test equipment and software diagnostics to test, trouble shoot
and repair memory boards
that were sold to other companies. It was a wonderful learning ground. Where else could I
have learned so many different computer bus structures used by the many emerging
companies, like Intel, Raytheon, Northrop, Hewlett Packard, DEC, etc. We worked on Dec
PDP-11's (remember those?)HP 3000, Intel bus products as well as a variety of lesser know
products
It wasn't long before I was promoted to shop lead and had about 16 Technicians working for me before Transferring to the Systems Development Computer group. There we built a computer emulator that was sold to engineers to use when designing new circuit boards. There I built test equipment, wrote the software programs creating diagnostic tools, trouble shooting and repaired to the component level, CPU boards, Disk controllers, Memory Boards and a variety of specialty boards. It truly was an exciting time in Silicon Valley. There is a certain amount of satisfaction that comes from taking an idea and making it a productable product.
1979-1981 AMC (Advanced Micro Computers)
I fell pry to an offer for more money and went to work for AMC (Advanced
MicroComputers) a subsidiary of AMD, Advanced Micro Devices and Siemens Corporation. There
we built and tested a variety of different Computers, from system 29 bit slicing, to
System Development computers, to system Emulation. Also at that company were several
brilliant engineers, who were developing what has become known today as "Token
Ring" networking. There was also an unscrupulous Vice president who we found out
later was manipulating stock illegally. Well, we were all suddenly laid off as the SEC
shut down the company.
1981-1990 Singer Link Flight Simulation
The following week I was employed by what was then called Singer Link. I was hired into
their Research and development group. This is where the people were that designed and
built the next generation of visual/radar systems for aircraft simulators. This company
has been in the flight simulation business since 1929, when Ed Link built his first
"Blue Box" flight trainer. There I started out as a test Engineer testing to the
component level the new designs for aircraft simulators. I spent almost 10 years there,
where I became a Senior Test Engineer, in charge of the test environment, controlling not
only the systems used to test the flight simulators, but their diagnostics and software
used to test them. We designed and developed one of the early Local Area Networks using
Ethernet with a combination of different computers and operating systems. We created
several programs operating over this network to test the various subsystems and complete
systems for aircraft simulators. Many were custom systems, requiring special
configurations and unique diagnostics. One of the Product requirements was to isolate the
problem down to a board within 15 minutes. At that time, this was a system with 13
subsytems, with from 18 to 28 boards each, all hand wire wrapped. I was the system
administrator, controlling the software for the 3250 Mainframe computers, unix computers
used in the test bed environment, and PC's used in the system test area. Working with
about 60 Engineers, we kept the diagnostic software up to date. We built the prototype
systems used to run the Digital Image Generators for such aircraft as the AH-64, CH-47,
F17, C130, SR71, and what became the stealth bomber. We dealt mostly with the Military,
our major customer, although we also built simulators for the civilian side of aviation as
well.
In 1990, the Singer Corporation was bought out by a corporate raider who later sold Link to Canadian Aerospace Electronics. This was a fatal blow to Link, as our government is not fond of foreign governments having access to some of the secrets of our Military weapons systems, and aircraft. So, we were dissolved over a period of about a year, and I was eventually laid off.
The Earthquake of
1989
It was about this time that my family was a victim of the 1989 earthquake, (living 5 miles
from the epicenter)where our home was nearly destroyed. The fault line involved ran two
houses away, as we could follow it's path through town by the torn up sidewalks and homes.
My wife couldn't wait to leave the bay area. To this day she is still disturbed and very
sensitive to the movement of the earth.
1990-1991 Oregon
We moved to Oregon, where I have family. Shortly before this move, my wife lost both
parents in about a year's time and needed a change. Well, going to Oregon, although a
beautiful place and a wonderful place to raise children, there was no work for a techie
like me. By chance we came to Las Vegas (there were some air fare specials) to investigate
work.
1991-1998 Bechtel Nevada - supporting DOE
Persuing a
job in Southern Nevada, I went to work for what was then called REECo. This company
was responsible for supporting the Dept of Energy, The Nevada Test Site, Lawrence
Livermore Labs, Sandia, and Los Alamos Labs. There I worked with the data
communications group. I am still baffled by that decision, but I guess that is where they
needed the help. That was in 1991. In 1993, the government quit testing Atomic
bombs, which is what they did there for 45 years. In 1995 Bechtel Nevada won the
support contract for the Nevada Test Site. It was working here that I hurt my back, rupturing a disk
into the siatic nerve.
1998-1999
In 1994 I first injured my back crawling around under a desk disconnecting a
computer. Over the next few months the pain got worse leading up to a back surgery to
repair the ruptured disk. A month later, I was back commuting to the Nevada Test Site,
doing what I was doing before. About a year after the first surgery, one morning I
couldn't get out of bed, as the wounded area ruptured again. Another surgery.... this time
the recovery was much longer. At work they accomidated me some for a while, but it wasn't
long enough when they decided to send me back to the test site again, working alone, when
the damaged back ruptured again as well as the surrounding disks this time....... Another
surgery, this time removing the disks and replacing them with screws, bars, bolts
and cages. I now have the bionic back, and will never be able to do what I was used to
doing before. When ready to resume some work, I returned to my employer, where after 2
days waiting, they laid me off.
I attended the classes to get an MCSE (Microsoft Certified System Engineer) and MCT
(Microsoft Certified Trainer). Took the classes but no money for the tests. I spent the
next 2 years interviewing, but with no luck. All would go well till I had to tell them
about my back, then the interviews would head back to the stack of applications.
In 1999 went bankrupt, got divorced, lost the house, boys grown and on their own and starting over.
2000 - Disability