Great accomplishments are overrated. I prefer to “go with the flow.”
How about you?
Cartoon shared from Calamities of Nature.
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training
(Continued from “Forty Years Ago–A Departure”.)
The flight from Houston had a short layover at Los Angeles International before continuing on to San Diego. From there it was but a short trip to the San Diego Naval Training Center.
A few weeks earlier, I had ridden with a friend to the Manned Spacecraft Center, where he worked. He was loaning me his car for the day so that I could look for a job.
Even though I had already had several jobs, I had very little experience at actually looking for a job and, looking back now, I really didn’t have a clue then on how to do it. I basically spent the day driving around, eventually ending up in a shopping center in Baytown.
I really didn’t start the day even thinking about joining the military, but there I was, at a Texas strip mall that housed recruiting offices for Marine Corp, Army, Air Force and Navy. With the ongoing Viet Nam conflict, the first two had absolutely no interest for me. While I don’t remember much about it, my first stop was in the Air Force recruiter’s office.
The stop at the Navy recruiting office was more memorable. The recruiter talked about a number of options, but there was one that really caught my attention, the Navy nuclear power program. Not only did it offer interesting opportunities in the Navy, but the job experience gained might later lead to opportunities in civilian nuclear power. The main drawback was it required a six year commitment instead of the more common two or four year enlistments.
In the ensuing weeks, I qualified for the program through the advanced programs test, passed a physical, and enlisted in the Navy with entry delayed until the end of December.
One of the benefits of the program was that I would be entering the service at E3 pay grade, a seaman – equivalent to a private first class – instead of seaman recruit (E1). Completion of recruit training would bring automatic promotion to Petty Officer Third Class, equivalent to corporal.
Three different job fields were included in the program: electronics, mechanical, and electrical. I hoped for electronics, but I wasn’t going to learn which field I was going to be in until after further testing in boot camp. Of course, electronics was what most of those who enter the program hoped for and not everyone could get it.
January 1, 1972 was a holiday, of course, so there was no processing of the new recruits. Instead, we got to watch football games in the receiving and outfitting transient barracks.
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While it was pretty hot last weekend, we did get to see quite a bit. We drove a good percentage of the coast from near the Mississippi state line almost to Pensacola Florida – including taking the ferry from Dauphin Island, Alabama.
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a bit of a surprise.
While I wasn’t expecting it when I got up this morning, I’m going back to work tomorrow morning — another contract job back at the place I retired from, working in training, as usual. They need help and found some money to pay for it.
So it’s back to setting an alarm clock, figuring out when to get to the gym, commuting — all of 20 minutes, with light traffic — and all the sundry things that go with work.
But, it’s only for a few weeks.
Except for that six month contract that looks like it’ll start January 3rd.
The retired part of “semi-retired” lasted 6 months this time.
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OK. I guess that’s a little overstating it. I’m not really unemployed. The job is over and the contract is up; I can’t sign up for unemployment because I’m making too much money – from my pension.
Students at a nuclear power plant simulator – photo rendered as a painting.
This was my second contract since I retired a little over three years ago. Both have been for about 6 months and both have been doing part of the job that I used to do before I retired – teaching license operator candidates in the classroom and in the simulator.
The class did well in the simulator operational exams administered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week. The last day of the operational exams was Thursday, which was also my last day on the job. I had my box packed and was out the door by a little after 6 PM.
I suppose it will take a little time to get back into the swing of not working.
I think I’ll be up to speed by sometime Monday morning. 
I’ve got quite a lot of work to do around our place this spring, summer, and fall. Of course, we’ll get a little bit of traveling in, too.
Then, sometime in January, it looks like I’ll probably be back at work. That’s about the time the next class should be at the point where I’ll be needed – if they allocate the funds, which I think is quite likely.
I’ve worked a total of about 13 1/2 months out of the last 36 – and when I do work, it’s doing something I know well and get satisfaction from.
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I’ve been working quite a number of hours in the simulator the last few weeks.
One of the requirements for reactor operators is that they demonstrate the ability to start up the reactor. Each candidate practiced the reactor startup 5 times and then had a startup where he or she is evaluated by someone from Operations management.
So that’s a total of 6 startups for each student. There are 12 students, so, over the last few weeks, there have been 72 startups for training or evaluation — and I was there for every one of them. Total time in the simulator for this was about 84 hours over a 4 week period — about 20 hours a week. And that doesn’t include the several startups that I did to verify the scenario I was using and to establish the conditions for the evaluations.
This week, I am working in the simulator from about 4 PM to midnight every day, providing support and guidance for a crew of students who are shutting the plant down and cooling to “cold iron.” Once that’s done, they’ll be doing a heatup to normal operating condition, with a startup and power escalation to as high in power as we can get before the end of the shift on Friday.
I’ll certainly be ready for a rest when the weekend rolls around.
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