It is 1 August 2006. Today I am officially retired from federal civil service. I started on 15 October 1969 so that makes it almost 37 years. I can still remember when I started like it was yesterday. I have had bad jobs, mediocre jobs and then some that anyone would dream about. My last job was one of those. I was an Engineering Technician with the Department of Engineering Mechanics at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO. I began there on 5 August 1995. What my work entailed was to teach and instruct the cadets on methods of manufacturing using various machine tools (mills, lathes, drill presses, CNC equipment) with which to build the projects that they were tasked to design, analyze and produce. During my eleven years in the lab I was exposed to all levels of abilities of engineering students from the born mechanical types to those who were better suited for a career as a lawyer, manager or poet. Some of these cadets astounded me in their natural skills while others caused me to wonder just how they managed to get out of bed on their own. It was a very enlightening job and at the same time very gratifying. I can't count the number of times that I had worked with a cadet trying to show them how or why certain things are done only to be frustrated to the point of madness. Then all of a sudden, out of the blue, I would see that light bulb, somewhere deep in their brain, come on. That would be the moment that I strived for and kept me going for those eleven years.
Through my work in the lab and the department I came to meet and befriend many, many engineers. I learned things about dynamics, structures, materials and systems that I otherwise would not have been exposed to if I had been anywhere else. I also brought something to the department that they were lacking in up to that point. That "something" was my love of cars, and later motorcycles, and the knowledge that went with that love. I was able to contribute my practical experience to the cadets who were in the Automotive Technologies course, bridging the gap between the classroom learning and the "real world" applications of that learning.
It was a bittersweet time for me yesterday as I processed out of the department and the base. While relishing my future in retirement I also knew that I was leaving behind something that had become very important to me and had become a large part of my life.