ancient-one
US Veteran
What two people do you remember most from your working days and why?
The first is a man from my crew on the flight line. He was a WW11 Army Veteran and was in his forties. He was from South Carolina. He had very little formal education but was a hell of a mechanic. He was good at reading system blueprints and finding the problem and above all was dependable and honest. He would not bring sandwiches in his lunch but instead would bring whole cold meals with biscuits. The only thing that got me was the cold layer of grease on his food. He also swore that his wife Minnie brought him breakfast in bed every morning.
He was a good carpenter. I hired him to help me build my garage, workshop and a couple of rooms on my house. He liked Dorothy's cooking and there was something that she cooked that I can't remember that he wanted every day. Dorothy liked to hear him say Dorothy because he rolled it out until it almost sounded like two words. I about forgot an important item, he chewed Days Work and never spit, just swallowed it. He was really one of a kind and a good guy.
The second was a man a little older than me that by his patience and help got me on track when I got promoted from Industrial Engineering Tech to B47 Command Workload. It was a little bit of delicate situation because the Division Chief(a man that I had previously worked for) hired me without knowledge of the Branch or Section Chief so I had to make good. Everything was in a turmoil because B-47's were losing wings and Boeing had come up with modification to be applied to every aircraft in the fleet. All of the AMA's were involved plus several contractors. I didn't even have a desk but was assigned to the program at one of the AMA's. I was given a bunch of folders, told to work on the corner of this guys desk, told we don't have time to train you and if you have a problem ask questions. I did. The guy that I was using part of his desk happened to be the most knowledgeable person in the bunch and he answered my questions and if I got off track he steered me back on. I learned so much from him. He was also responsible for doing all of the reports for the Section and I liked working with figures so I ended up giving him some help. I gained enough knowledge to get promoted again in about two years. About two years later he died from colon cancer. It was a big loss to our Section but I lost a very good friend and will never forget him.
The first is a man from my crew on the flight line. He was a WW11 Army Veteran and was in his forties. He was from South Carolina. He had very little formal education but was a hell of a mechanic. He was good at reading system blueprints and finding the problem and above all was dependable and honest. He would not bring sandwiches in his lunch but instead would bring whole cold meals with biscuits. The only thing that got me was the cold layer of grease on his food. He also swore that his wife Minnie brought him breakfast in bed every morning.
He was a good carpenter. I hired him to help me build my garage, workshop and a couple of rooms on my house. He liked Dorothy's cooking and there was something that she cooked that I can't remember that he wanted every day. Dorothy liked to hear him say Dorothy because he rolled it out until it almost sounded like two words. I about forgot an important item, he chewed Days Work and never spit, just swallowed it. He was really one of a kind and a good guy.
The second was a man a little older than me that by his patience and help got me on track when I got promoted from Industrial Engineering Tech to B47 Command Workload. It was a little bit of delicate situation because the Division Chief(a man that I had previously worked for) hired me without knowledge of the Branch or Section Chief so I had to make good. Everything was in a turmoil because B-47's were losing wings and Boeing had come up with modification to be applied to every aircraft in the fleet. All of the AMA's were involved plus several contractors. I didn't even have a desk but was assigned to the program at one of the AMA's. I was given a bunch of folders, told to work on the corner of this guys desk, told we don't have time to train you and if you have a problem ask questions. I did. The guy that I was using part of his desk happened to be the most knowledgeable person in the bunch and he answered my questions and if I got off track he steered me back on. I learned so much from him. He was also responsible for doing all of the reports for the Section and I liked working with figures so I ended up giving him some help. I gained enough knowledge to get promoted again in about two years. About two years later he died from colon cancer. It was a big loss to our Section but I lost a very good friend and will never forget him.
. When I was starting out there, I was sent to the mapping department when there was an older gentleman named Amos C. I watched him drawing easements and property configurations on paper, and I guess being a wide-eyed kid I was openly impressed with this work. For the next 38 years I worked with maps, deeds and property surveys and I got very experienced in plotting out the configuration of parcels of land.
