Fast Movers
As a crew chief/door gunner on a Huey in South Vietnam in ’70/’71, there were many times I took note of what we were doing and knew I’d never be doing this again once I went back home.
Anecdotes
It’s a Choice!
When my two girls were in grade school, we were at the pet store picking up hamster supplies. When we were checking out, I noticed that the cashier, about high school age, seemed to be having a bad day. As…
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Coyotes, Meerkats, And Coati Mundis
After living in Connecticut for a year where my first daughter was born, we thought it would be best for raising a baby girl if we were around my wife’s mother and her sisters, who lived in Florida. We moved…
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Our New Navy Friends
Chu-Lai, Vietnam – 1971: I have always thought it was the kind of thing for which we should have gotten in real trouble. But I was a helicopter crew chief, which is an enlisted position, and not responsible for the…
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Not Paid To Think
I never saw it do anything other than the opening screen pictured here. I should also mention that Bill never actually figured out how to make it do anything other than the opening screen. And there was the opportunity. Bill was a visionary who knew instinctively that we were looking at the future of managing a production line, even business in general, but it didn’t come with any software for doing any of those things, nor a manual that explained how to get it to do any of them.
A Great Time to Quit Smoking – Part Two
I had started smoking again when I was out with my brother one night in Connecticut after having not smoked for four years. By the time I left Connecticut to be with my wife and daughter in Florida, I had…
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A Great Time to Quit Smoking – Part One
I had just turned 25 years old and was working at a garage business in Connecticut that my father and I had started jointly when I was 21. I had given him a six-month notice in March of that year…
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Camaraderie
It was September 1971. I was 20 years old and two months from leaving Chu Lai, South Viet Nam, realizing the completion of my obligation for military service. The “enemy” that day was either a monsoon or a typhoon. Our…
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Metamorphosis
It seems like it was a lifetime ago. I woke up one morning not feeling very well. As soon as my feet hit the floor that day I headed for the bathroom and threw up. My wife, returning from her…
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Best Exit Interview Ever
When I first started working in a production facility in Florida, they put me on the second shift as an assistant supervisor. The department I worked in performed an operation that put a coating on racks of parts and then…
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