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66,199 out of 865,794 Veterans
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Bio
Slowly moving from a career as an Oracle DBA to my laser engraving business.
Military Experiences
1988 - 1994
Computer Programmer
Still used a Card Punch to program a mainframe. I soon found a way to write a C program on a PC & hook through the mainframe's RS232 port. It was so nice to put code on a floppy disc vs a deck of cards you could drop. I didn't document the code as it was only to last 6 months before a new system replaced it. I learned later it was in place for a long, long time. Sorry to those who got stuck maintaining it after I left.
MS Windows 2.0 was new and had just been placed on all of our PCs & no one knew what to do with it. So first thing every day we shelled out to DOS to do our work.
Feb 1986 - Feb 1987
Scope Dope
I coined the phrase "Commie One" while working the scope as Gorbachev flew in for the Reykjavík Summit (SALT) with President Reagan. Gorbachev's plane was changing their squawk every sweep of the scope (every 12 seconds).
Most tense moment - On radar, I had a Soviet Bear aircraft pop up 10-15 miles from base. The alert F-15s & AWACS were both out of position down near DC. What seemed like less than a couple minutes an F-15 pilot had radar lock & was asking for weapons status. The weapons officer answered "weapons free". The Bear turned away. That was back in the day we didn't put up with that crap like they do today.
Apr 1983 - Feb 1986
TACC - Scope Operator
Wrote backwards on plexiglass boards for the Tactical Command Staff. These no longer exist, partially because I computerized the process while there. I recall Major Eugene Pearson demoing our new system to several Generals & full Colonels who where very impressed. They never knew that at that time I was listening in a dark corner manually making all of the fancy aircraft tracking on the display fly around. I did later get it working, but it was some of the worse coding I've ever seen in my life.
Another computer 1st. Took a Cromemco computer to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in AZ & for the 1st time transmitted an Air Tasking Order through a modem to Hill AFB, Utah, This had never been done to that point. Used a 300 baud CAT Acoustic phone coupler. Everyone thought I was nuts.
Military Credentials
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Security Clearance
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