I'm Retired

My first job came in 1955 picking cotton in Mr. Basset's cotton fields at the ripe old age of 11 (boy, was I lousy at that!). In just a few years I had advanced to the level of house painter. Later I became a boat and trailer shop helper at Mr.Murphy's boat shop and finally an electrician's helper in Birmingham, AL.

I then went on to attend Auburn University [WAR EAGLE] for about two years.

My draft status at that time was 1-A with a rather low lottery number and since my college grades, shall we say, weren't all that great I had to make a decision. What to do? As a 20 year old, how does three years in the army or six months active duty then 5 1/2 years in the Alabama National Guard sound? I chose the Guard. But, wait! It's three months before I leave for basic training. As any self respecting young man in 1964, I needed a job and took a three month stint as a tin knocker working for a sheet metal contractor in an Orlon/Rayon plant (terrible job, fumes were awful). Finally, off to the army (but that's a story for another day).

Back home from the army, I enter the electrical field. This is a craft which will carry me for the rest of my career. It was really a great run and took me to many parts of the world! I've managed the electrical construction for car plants in Batavia, OH and Shreveport, LA; high rise office buildings in Dallas, TX and Nashville, TN; and a power plant in Jackson, AL. I even built the electrical for tug boats in Bayou La Batre, AL! I was project manager for electrical construction projects in parts of Saudi Arabia for 3 years. During that time I got to visit Austria (learned to ski here), Switzerland, England, Cyprus, Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands I later managed a time-sensitive, around-the-clock electrical rewiring of a burned-out defense plant in Irving, TX. And then was project manager for the electrical wiring of several Black World projects for the USAF in the Western United States.

Finally, I had the privilege of working the last ten years in one of the most top-secret government facilities in the world: Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, Colorado Springs, Colorado. [And, NO, Star Gate SG1 is not housed there.] I consider it an honor to have been able to work in the power generation plant inside that granite mountain ... with NO windows to see outside. I believe the hardest days were in the winter. You see, we worked 12 hour shifts around the clock. I'd go to work before sunrise and come out after sunset. Or when I worked nights early on, I'd go in after sunset and come out before sunrise. That will wear on a person. In my small way I hope I helped keep this country a little safer.

My retirement day came through a series of starts and stops, as the belt-way-bandit (a term used for goverment contractors) for whom I had worked for almost 10 years advised us that the contract would be terminated on September 30, 2010. As the date changed from September to October to November to December then to January to February, it is starting to sound like the government is in charge.  I submitted my resignation; then withdrew it at least twice. Hey, I am trying to hit a moving target here.

The actual contract termination date turned out to be March 31, 2011. But I left on February 11, 2011 because on that date, I completed 10 years of service and not leaving on that date would have cost me about 40 hours of vacation pay.

Anyway the final day came. The usual things one must do when leaving a job with a security clearence were completed around noon. There were good-byes and a few hand shakes. Traditionally, one walks through the double blast doors, catches the bus and rides down through the tunnel to the entrance. Here we get off for the special retirement picture taking. HOWEVER, on this memorable day, they forgot to put film in the camera. AND it really was a camera that still used film, not a digital camera. Hey, Obama was in charge and there'd been budget cuts. What can I say? They have no record of my officially leaving...and neither do I.

If you total it all up I beleive you will find 50 years of work. I am satified with that.

Remember: God only gives us a certain number of days. I plan not to waste the ones I have left .

Until we talk again.

Mike