Civilian Work Years 1975 - 1995 I retired from the United States Air Force on the last day of August 1975. That was tough to do because all of my adult life was in the military. My friends were there and it was "home." As soon as I retired I knew I couldn't be "just retired". Heck, I was only 37 years old and we had three kids still in school. I wanted to go to Law School but that wasn't really an option. Now was the time to get into the world of professionals - civilian business. Out came the resume and off to an Employment Office I went. At first I had no idea what might be available in the local market for which I was qualified. I sat down with the gentleman at the agency and we went over my military experience. As soon as he saw the Nondestructive Inspection Superintendent section of my resume his eyes lit up. A company helping to build the nuclear power plant in the area had put out a feeler for an x-ray film processor. Hey, great, I could have a job and he could earn his placement fee. Together we arranged for an interview. All I had to do is get the job. From some place way back in my training I had learned that when you went for a job interview you should be ready to go to work on the spot. At least be ready to demonstrate that you can do the job. This job was in heavy construction and I knew it would be a blue color type work. Guess what? Yup you guessed it, blue jeans and a long sleeved shirt with boots. A jacket in case it was a refrigerated film processing room. I was going to be ready. The next day I drove out to the nuclear power plant following the instructions I was given and I met with the NDE Supervisor. We sat and talked for a while and explored all of my experience in the military. When we talked about my Technical Instruction experience we discovered we had met previously on the telephone and had some long discussions. He had worked for a company that bid on a writing contract I was administering when I was at Chanute AFB. Their company got the contract. They did a fine job too. He was one of their chief writers. And he also remembered the presentation I had made at the first World Wide NDE Conference in San Antonio, Texas representing the United States Air Force Technical School. Small world once again. When we finished going over old times he said he had to go and talk to the Quality Assurance Manager. Cooling my heels I had a chance to look around a bit. There were a few things that I noticed that needed some attention so while he was gone I made myself at home and got them done. Nothing earth shaking, but just some housekeeping things. The phone rang and the clerk answered. He was told to escort me to the Manager's Office. Another interview I assumed. As soon as I walked into the Manager's Office he reached out and shook my hand. Without even a hello he asked, "When can you start work?" I told him, "Immediately, I'm dressed for it and ready to start." The clerk piped up and said, "Heck he already started. He arranged a file we need done while he was waiting." With that the Manager grinned and said, "How about Monday morning at 8. That will give me time to get you on the payroll." He then told me what he was paying as a starting salaried employee. I almost fainted. He was going to pay me per week what I was making in the military in a month. When the NDE Supervisor and I left the Manager's Office he told me that I was not being hired as a film processor but as an NDE Technician. Also, he wanted to have me teach some classes to the technicians he had already hired who were not qualified in all the inspection methods. Sounded good to me. I asked again how much they were paying since I couldn't believe my ears to begin with. Yup, he repeated the same figure. Boy was I ever ready to go to work then. On Monday, October 3, 1975, my wife's birthday, I reported to work. After screening through security, I had to demonstrate my ability on the various inspection methods and take a written exam on each one of the methods. Passing the tests and demonstrating the inspection methods was no problem at all and I "certified" on all the methods. As I worked in the field using the various methods, I soon found out that for each one that I used for a minimum of 90 days there was a pay raise. It didn't take long and I had more money coming in every two weeks than I had ever seen before in my life. Pays to be prepared even if it's an accident. Soon I was doing all of the inspections needed and also teaching classes. Everyone got along well and we all cooperated to get the job done. It was a great bunch of guys to work with. The Company got some other contracts and the NDE Supervisor moved on to another job. He recommended me for his position and I moved up the ladder. It was a bitter thing though. Since the construction was nearing completion I had the responsibility of laying off inspectors. That was tough to do but I managed by explaining what was happening and showing everyone exactly how I arrived at deciding who had to be laid off. The next thing that happened was another construction contract at another utility. The Quality Assurance Manager was going to be transferred to that job. He recommended me for his job and out came a whole airplane load of guys to make sure I could handle the Manager's job. A battery of tests to make sure I was qualified and also a lot of demonstrations that I could do the work. I qualified and before you could say anything more they got the approval of the utility we were building for and I was the Quality Manager assigned to finish the construction contract. Everything went really well and the Company was just about finished with construction when Three Mile Island accident happened. That caused all the plants to go back over every thing they had done and make sure that it wouldn't happen at their plant. A lot of work and a lot of midnight oil. And some rework just to be sure. Oh yes, we had our share of whistle blowers too. That caused some added work but it was a good thing because it made doubly sure the plant was well built. My wife had told me that I was too much of a perfectionist and that it would get me in trouble one day. I never listened to her. Sure enough, I probably should have, because one Friday night just as we were finishing up all the work at the nuclear power plant, I managed to have a couple heart attacks, three of them in one night. We were at a friends house when the first one happened and I made my wife take me home. I was a two pack a day Camel smoker at the time.  That and the stress of the work just got to me. As I was falling down with my heart attack I threw the cigarettes in the fireplace at home and it ran through my head that they were the cause of my problem. I haven't smoked since. I was really lucky that night. First, they were having a dance at the school across the street from our home and a paramedic heard the 911 call on his radio just as he was taking his equipment into the school. He came across the street and in the front door before my wife had a chance to hang up the phone. Second, a new doctor in town was on call for an elderly man in a nursing home and just happened to be in the emergency room that night. He was a cardiac specialist and knew just what to do. The doctor on duty turned me over to him and he went to work. He had to. I had my second heart attack in the emergency room. After he got me into intensive care I had the third heart attack. The doctor stayed with me until I finally came too and opened my eyes. That was on Sunday afternoon. He had slept in a chair Friday and Saturday nights and ate his meals in the room with me. Finally, I was really super lucky. There was no charge for his time. He didn't bill me at all. Needless to say he was my doctor from then on. Now he owns his own clinic near Branson, Missouri. If you ever need a fine doctor and you are in his area,,, well, you couldn't find one any better. Ask me and I will give you his name. When I got fully recuperated, or so I thought, I went back to work. Ninety days later I was at a cardiac therapy session when I got the news that things didn't look well, that I probably needed an operation. I arranged for a replacement at work and I followed the doctors advice and had a double bypass. Wow, I didn't know I felt so bad until I came to after the surgery. I felt great, like a kid again. The thing that woke me was my pulse beating in my ear. I hadn't heard that in years. With six months off to fully recover, the company offered me another position at another power plant. I accepted and off I went to Seabrook, New Hampshire. At Seabrook I was the Quality Control Supervisor. After 18 months I moved on to the Company Headquarters in Williamsport, Pennsylvania and became the Company Training Supervisor. In the fourteen months that I was there I wrote and implemented a Training Manual for Quality Control Technicians. Things weren't looking good for the nuclear power construction business so I started to look around for another job. The power plant you see pictured at the start of this page is the one I worked on during construction and they were starting to fill their staff getting ready to start operating. I sent in a resume and was offered a job. I jumped at it because I knew their operating license was for forty years. Lots of security in a job like that. Besides, I helped build the place. In December 1983 we moved back to California. Again I had a series of tests to take and demonstrations to make. All of them went well and I was again "certified" to be an inspector. During the time I worked in the field I had gotten a fairly good feel for what was needed in the form of a process and documentation for the operation records. An idea was starting to form in my head about developing an automatic system to generate and process the paperwork. As luck would have it I had been playing with a Commodore64 computer and felt it could be used in this business. The utility I was now working for also felt that the complexity of the power plant dictated moving into the modern era of computers and they decided that all of the employees should have a personal computer tied to their main frame. A computer was delivered and set up on my desk. I had to learn to use an "almost 286 Weise" computer. Big time now. The Quality Department had a wonderful staff. One of them was a programmer who had a great imagination and liked to think he could do anything. I had a form and an idea, so I sat down with Bob Morris and I explained my idea. He went about his business and wrote an application that would do what I had envisioned. When I installed it for the first time it worked. Great !!!!!! By then a number of the inspectors had been selected to be inspection planners. Their function was to examine the work documents of the maintenance being done and to develop inspections for each job activity. With a little training each planner learned to use the computer program and we were off and running. Later after the plant became more and more proficient in its operation, the computer became one of the more important tools used by everyone. Computers and printers were upgraded and the various jobs from supply of parts to maintenance and inspection were all integrated into one system. Anyone could see what was being done at any one time. The application I had designed in my head and had written down by the programmer was incorporated into the overall plant computer system. It is still being used today, many years later. In the process, you guessed it, I had overdone it again and in August of 1990 I had another heart operation. This time it was three bypasses, and they replaced the two older ones. Recovery wasn't as rapid this time. I was older and I was also more aware of how I felt. Although I went back to work and eventually became supervisor of the Design Change Construction Quality Control Group, I was never quite the same again. When down sizing came along I quickly volunteered for retirement. In March 1995 I retired from the utility. Now I was a triple dipper, military retirement, construction retirement and now operations retirement, and could live quite comfortably on my stay at home income. Looking back on it all I was surprised at the money I made in the nuclear power industry. Uncle Sam took their fair share in taxes. As a matter of fact they took enough in taxes each year that I paid my own military retirement. Somehow or other that doesn't seem right but it is the way it worked out. When someone complains about a guy getting a military retirement at the age of 37, look at how much he is paying in taxes with his civilian job. I bet he is doing what I did, paying for his own retirement with the income tax he is paying. Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant has been setting world wide records in performance and safety since it started "Initial Criticality" on April 29, 1984. I was the Quality Control Technician who monitored the fuel loading and assembly of the nuclear reactor prior to its first start. I am proud of my contribution to its great achievements.