Starting off Professionally 1977 to 1983

If anyone seen movies about the Vietnam War and saw the scenes of draftees going through physicals, that was my first day associated with the military was like. Though the draft ended four years earlier (1973), much of the infrastructure in Armed Forces Entrance and Examination Centers remained from that era. After we were done with physicals (I was a bit on the chubby side) and all the paperwork, which most of it wound up in the waste basket, came the bus ride from Los Angeles to San Diego to take us to boot camp. Some of the recruits were destined for Marine Corp Recruit Depot while many of us went to Recruit Training Command at Naval Training Center both in San Diego. We arrived in the evening and marched off to the barracks where we were to stay after being insulted about how ugly we were and nasty things said about our mothers. But this was right after Vietnam and the speech of political correctness and sensitivity has not set in the military yet despite of trying to erase it's tarnished image after the unpopular Southeast Asian War.

I completed boot camp after eight weeks and went home for Christmas. I attended Basic Electricity and Electronics Preparatory School at Naval Training Center in San Diego and upon completion of that course, Avionics A1 School at NAS Memphis in Millington, Tennessee. I was guaranteed “A” school upon enlisting and in February of 1978 I drove across snow covered plains of Texas from warm and sunny San Diego, California to report to school. I wound up spending three nights in Fort Worth, Texas due to icy conditions of the interstate. I did make it to Memphis before another storm front moved in and it snowed, more like a blizzard, on my first day there. This was something I did not see or experience in Southern California and last time I was in any sort of winter weather was in Japan while working at the ski lodge but not of this magnitude!

I settled in and after various temporary chores of doing the dirty work that low ranking people were assigned to, I started school. At the time Avionics A1 school was a self-paced course with instructors not teaching in a classroom environment but on an advisory role explaining subjects on a one to one basis. You sat in a booth with text and workbooks and set your own pace to meet the mandated deadline to complete the course. Self-paced meant exactly that. You can study more to graduate early or go at the pace you were assigned. If you were slow and fell behind then extra sessions became mandatory. Labs and trainers were included in the course. I went to extra sessions to graduate early and completed the course two months ahead of schedule. Military tradition of hurry up and wait set in and I finally received orders to my first duty station. My disappointment came to be as I requested to go to a squadron at Atsugi, Japan. Instead shore duty assignment at Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department Avionics Division at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego, California awaited me. I left Memphis as a designated E-2 stopping off to visit my grandmother in Electra, Texas and help her around the house since my grandfather passed away in 1976. That was the last time I would see her and enjoy her chocolate pies. She passed away in 1981. I always wrote letters (days before e-mail) to my grandmother and she would write back every time I did. She always had different news to write about. I may have stopped writing to her a year later but always made a point to call her. Memories of her and my grandfather I will always cherish.

After reporting to North Island I picked up garbage around the base for two weeks during “indoc” classes. Afterwards to Avionics Division where they assigned me to the “cable and corrosion shop.” Certainly frustrated as I wanted to get into heavy duty electronics. As every non-rate (E-1 to E-3) in the Navy had to do I went on my 90-day temporary duty as a deck hand on a deep sea fishing boat owned by Morale, Welfare and Recreation Department. I was angry at the time as I pondered why I went to “A” school so I can untie fishing lines, clean fish and the boat and unhook fish caught by customers. However, I did make some money in tips when we cleaned the fish if the customer wanted it. I completed my temporary duty and in retrospect, as I am older now, I see it as part of the military's way of seeing how you would react to meaningless duty that someone had to do! I still remember how to tie lines and such but that was the last time I ever went deep sea fishing. I think about doing it again as I get closer to retirement but will wait and see.

After returning to my division I was went to micro-miniature component repair school. Basically it's an art that is no longer done in electronics, repair and replace components on printed circuit boards. I went to Naval Air Maintenance Training Detachment at Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego to get certified. To show you how much electronic technology has changed the certification I went to school for was equal to soldering certification issued by NASA. I remember when I received my “F” level certification card, the instructor told me to keep it as I can “make good bucks” on the outside with it. I re-certified to the next level, “E” and then was qualified to go to printed circuit board repair school. I still wanted to work with actual electronics. However, the job was easy and working night shifts and home by 7:30 in the evening, I didn't push the issue. I did receive my “D” certification which allowed me to repair circuit boards. Finally my regular Navy enlistment was expiring and I landed a job with Science Applications Incorporated modifying circuit boards but the pay was nothing I expected. I was released from active duty in October of 1981 and affiliated with the reserves afterwards. I was assigned to the reserve unit that was a counterpart to my former active duty group. I was in the same micro-miniature shop with the same boring work I did for three years.

I got my first paycheck from SAIC and was disappointed at my net pay. WOW! What happened to those big stories of former sailors who went to work for Lockheed or any major aerospace companies with starting pay at $27,000 a a year! Looking at the paycheck I would have made much more as a Petty Officer Third Class with over four years, no fear of layoffs, medical and dental covered and maybe assignment to the USS Midway in Japan! Years later in the Reserves I had collateral duty as Navy Counselor. Even as a Select Reservist (weekend warrior) I approached those whose enlistments were expiring about what they can get from the Navy. I enjoyed it so much that I did it for nine years! As you get older hindsight is always 20/20 and if only I had listened to Petty Officer Brown at the time! Unfortunately the collateral duty NC when I was on active duty only wanted to have a desk job with no responsibilities and you could tell by the attrition.

The section I worked for at SAIC had a reputation for having a supervisor who love to fire people! I remember techs coming out of his office in tears after they've been told they were dismissed! One technician gave her two weeks notice because she was hired by a major aerospace company that paid her more. She was fired on the spot because the manager felt that she wasn't with the company long enough to warrant recognizing her two week notice. This was in 1981 and the two managers that ran the projects were the epitome of what was going wrong with the American system at the time and a microcosm of bigger troubles that were ahead. As for me my employment situation was not getting any better. I needed to get out of SAIC and find something stable and of course more income. I did land a job with a capacitor manufacturing company as the second shift supervisor. Oh did this job get to my ego! I was in charge and was in a salary position. I had a goal to work my way up the corporate ladder and despite lacking formal college education I was going to be a business executive before I reached 30! It was a Japanese owned company but the history of that subsidiary and the six degrees of separation of people who worked there was amazing! But the Japanese at the time was kicking ass and I wanted to be part of a winning team. There were articles on how this company had scored on a US fumble. Little did I know!

I gave my notice to SAIC and I was not fired! In fact I received a phone call from the human resources manager and she asked why I had left as many people were doing at the time. My main grievance was the two managers made working their uncomfortable and in today's term, created a hostile work environment. So I started my new job wearing a tie and a smock with company logo. Dressed like a Japanese manager that was shown on numerous television documentaries at the time, I led my crew in daily calisthenics, tried to give inspiring speeches and recognize special achievements performed by individuals to the team to stimulate them to increase production and give 1000% to the company. Unfortunately I was living the stereotype and not reality of my present environment. I read the books that were vogue at the time such as “Theory Z” and “Japan as Number One.” I was seduced by the myth. Perhaps it was growing up where words such as “Jap” was commonplace twenty years after the end of the war. Or that half-Asian males were not attractive and was second tier in social activities. But on the flip side it was the same overseas as well.

The work schedule was grueling and it was common that the Japanese manager and engineers would put in twelve plus hour days at six days a week! Since I was salary-exempt I too was on twelve-hour days, six-days a week. I had just gotten married and it was a bad way to start a marriage. Though I would not want to admit it, that start was to become an omen. I recall a company meeting at the owners's mansion in La Jolla and saw a bathroom the size of my apartment was the apex of working there. I left that company six months later and the employment situation was getting worse! I went to work for a government contractor whose sole purpose appeared to be making the owner wealthy!

I was a bench technician repairing electronics equipment from Navy ships. It was depot level maintenance and the contract seem to call for us working on equipment that was outdated or that the government side of the house did not want to touch! I first worked on a communications computer then shifted over to work on oscillators. My pay was $6.90 per hour but I had weekends off and no overtime during the day. After eight hours I was on my way home. Unfortunately my paycheck was shrinking with each civilian job I took. I still affiliated with the Naval Reserves and my two week annual training check was more than my two week check with the contractor. This wasn't going to cut it and I did get a 27 cents an hour pay raise. I first thought that it was a gradual raise given to me in increments! It wasn't as it was my first raise at six months! I searched for another job. I had interviews with all sorts of companies but no avail! One job I thought for sure I had with a distributor of mylar film projectors but that fell through at the last minute! My Sundays would consist of searching the classifieds for that elusive job that was going to help me enhance my post military career. Resumes were sent out in masse and so were rejection letters received.

One day I received a call from human relations of a company in San Diego. I never heard of them but did see them off the freeway as I drove on 163 through Kearny Mesa. This was the 80's and any involvement with computers, whether hardware or software was considered high tech. They called me for an interview and which I gladly accepted. Perhaps this will be the end of my dry spell and into something that I really want. I didn't expect what was to come and it was my first taste of working for an actual corporation.