Mike Rowe wants more philosopher-welders

This is how I've lived my life. I realized, in 1978, that a B.A would not give me the things I wanted in life so I quit higher education and went into a skilled trades apprenticeship. I enlisted in 1983 and turned that trades knowledge into one of the best jobs the army had to offer at the time in the field of TMDE. After The Med board gave me my walking papers in 1993, I walked straight back into a skilled trades position. Any time I talk to youngsters about what they're going to do with their life I push a trades oriented education or apprenticeship. My Sister stayed in school until she had a PhD in Psychology. She was on clinical staff in Landsthul and Brooks during the 90's and 2000's. I've made more money than She, even in retirement I'm better set up, and I always enjoyed my work to the point that going to the J O B was more like a day in the park than work. Didin't have to worry about my clothes because the employer supplied stuff I could roll around on the floor in. I wasn't trapped in a 10x10 cubby all day long. As long as I did my job efficiently and effectively I got paid to sit and do nothing. I spent 12 hours on the clock at $30+/hr and might have actually worked 15 minutes of that time. If you've got children or grandchildren trying to figure out what to do with their lives, talk to them about the skilled trades. A lot of community colleges are teaching Mechatronics now, that's a fancy way of saying Multi-craft tradesman, The "Jack-of-All" that most employers are looking for. I've been a Harley Mechanic and I've written the programs to transfer tons of powdered product from silos to day bins. My engineers liked me a lot because I made their jobs easier.
SGT James Murphy, CPT Jack Durish,
SPC Gary Welch, SGT Mark Anderson,
CPL Douglas Chrysler, LTC Trent Klug,
CSM Charles Hayden, SMSgt David A Asbury,
SSG William Jones, MSgt Robert "Rock" Aldi
SSG Michael Noll, MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D.
SGM Erik Marquez, CW3 Harvey K.
SFC William Farrell, CPL Ronald Keyes Jr
Sgt (Join to see), SSG (Join to see)
1SG Dan Capri, LTC (Join to see)