50+ thread

My middle boy got thru his apprenticeship in L.A. wage market, then moved to Seattle and carried that rate with him. He almost owns his house now. . .

 

Absitively

 

Story Time With Tom
When I was in high school, I had no idea at all what to do with my life. I was intrigued with the idea of being a gunsmith, but I had no idea if there was any sort of formal training for that. It being the early 1908's, the internet and Google was a loooong way off at that point. I also knew that if I didn't have some sort of plan in place, my dad would find something for me to do with my life..... It just so happened that over the summer just prior to the start of my Senior year in High School, my best friend announced that he had just enlisted in the Army. He told me that if I enlisted as well, and we picked the same MOS (Military Occupational Specialty - job, in other words), we could go on the "Buddy System", which meant that the Army would supposedly guarantee us that we would go through Basic Training and Advanced Training together. My dad had been drafted and sent over to Korea in 1951, and so I figured that the Army would at least be "acceptable" in his opinion, so I decided what the hell, and I went to see the local Recruiter.

I had actually taken the ASVAB - Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery - test in my Sophomore year of High School just for the pure fun of seeing how well I could do on it. Fast forward to me meeting with the Recruiter. Now by this time, my BFF had decided he wanted to be an Armor Crewman, M60 Tanks, and he wanted to go to Germany. So in exchange for a 4 year enlistment, the Army did guarantee him a German duty assignment (he ended up patrolling the West German - Hungarian border, keeping tabs on the Soviets). I didn't think much about that MOS, and the Recruiter told me "you scored high enough on the ASVAB, you qualify for any job in the Army. He actually strongly encouraged me to pick a technology based job, and he suggested T.O.W./Dragon Missile Systems Repair. I figured it didn't really matter all that much, so I signed up for that. To this day, I still chuckle a little at the thought that my High School BFF (actually, two of them) went in as Tank crewmen, and my job was to repair anti-Tank missile systems.

So... my Advanced training was just shy of 6 months long, as it involved a lot of electrical theory training long before we got to learn about the actual missile systems themselves. At that time, it was a rare period of pure peace time (Grenada invasion was 1983, the first Gulf war wasn't until 1990 or 91), and so few people were making the Military a career, it was virtually impossible to make rank, so I decided not to re-enlist. I had been rather intrigued by all the electronic theory I had learned in my Training, so I decided to use my GI Bill to go to college and get an Engineering degree. Which is exactly what I did. I got out of the Army in 1988, started college that August, graduated with a shiny new BS in Computer Engineering 5 years later, and now... here I am. Unemployed for the 4th time, struggling to find a job, and no idea what my "retirement" will end up looking like, as I have had to drain all my various 401(k)s over the years, when I have ended up unemployed for many months at a time, to not lose everything.

My High School BFF that originally convinced me to enlist got out after his 4 years, went to college for a couple years, decided he wanted to go back in, but not the Army. He enlisted in the Coast Guard. He spent another 20+ years in the Coast Guard, was in Helo rescue operations during Hurricane Katrina and sent me some terrifying pictures of what had been New Orleans, ended his career as a CG Recruiter, based in San Antonio, TX, and now owns a bar & grille in San Antonio for the last 15 or so years. He has his full Coast Guard retirement, plus his business that has done very well, and his wife has a successful career of her own. Sometimes I wonder how things might have turned out if I had re-enlisted. Maybe I would have stayed in until retirement age, who knows.

/end of Story Time

/edit to add: My earlier comment about a school for gunsmithing? Well, funny thing, that. I went to college up in northern California, town of Chico. At some point, I learned there was a very well known Gun smithing school a couple hours northeast of Chico, town of Susanville. Just a little irony there.

 

He's is on the honor roll, he has never done well in school so this is amazing.

 

Funny the choices we make. I put myself through college, got a degree in tool and die making, just when all the jobs went overseas.
Took the job at Mother X just to get on my feet and plan my next move. 36 years later, I retired from there.

 

Boat update: I’ve been layering fiberglass roving. We’ll call it a light 1/3 of the way done. I have more layers to put down including fiberglass cloth. Then move onto the inside.


15x10 inch repair


8x4 inch repair

 

New rear tires for the Camaro

 

Chuck,

you bought bald tires!

 

They've got 6/32nd deep grooves on the tread surface , they're DOT legal !!!

 

I think you pay extra for that

 

So sorry to hear that. Onward and upward to something better

Woohoo. Good for him

 

ugghh well this was a first..... afib started after I got up this time, not while I was sleeping

 

Sorry Susan

 

Good evening everyone

Knocked out a lot on the never ending to-do list today.

Dammit Walter. Hopefully something better comes along soon.

Glad to hear that your son is doing well with apprentice training.

I enjoy story time with Tom. Funny thing about choices made.

Nice work Paul. Thank you for sharing your progress.

Oh man, grip and go!

Dammit Susan. Good thoughts to you.

 

Ah crap

 

I'll be praying for ya

 

Good morning.

 

Good morning everybody!

 

Good morning