Just retired after 34

Just retired after 34.5 years working for Admiral
Rickover's organization, Naval Reactors. Finally got around to doing the
math and concluded it didn't make much sense continuing to work for about 30%
of
my salary after passing retirement age. I'm not sure exactly what kind of
job I'm going to pick, there are many choices available. My problem is
that I still haven't figured what I want to do when, and if, I grow up. I
still play with my radio controlled model airplanes and audio/video
electronics;
it would be nice to find some one to pay me for indulging in one of my
hobbies.

After graduating from Roos Roads H.S. in 1962 we
moved to Rota, Spain. I spent the summer there then left for college at
Yale in the fall. I had a Navy ROTC regular program scholarship, so
my father was able to afford the room and board. I was a freshman when
Dick Cheney was a senior, and a junior when George W. was a freshman, but
didn't
know either of them at the time. I spent summers on midshipmen cruises;
third class year I bombarded Culebra island inside a 5 inch 38 gun mount on
the
USS HYMAN, the first class summer spent on a foreign exchange cruise with
Spain
on the frigate JUPITER and the Spanish naval academy in Marin.

I applied for the nuclear power program my senior
year at Yale, but during the interview process was asked to work at Naval
Reactors headquarters organization rather than joining the submarine service
which I had originally applied for. My five year naval career was spent in
Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh,Pa (attended the Bettis Atomic Power Lab
Reactor
Engineering School for 6 months), with time at New London, Groton and
Windsor,
CT. After resigning my commission, I stayed on at NR as an Atomic Energy
Commission employee. I moved through various positions and in late 1978,
Adm Rickover asked me to be his field representative at Westinghouse Plant
Apparatus Division, a prime contractor responsible for procurement of most
reactor plant equipment. I spent almost three years in Pittsburgh at that
job then returned to Washington where I've worked in three different
positions first dealing with the shipyards, then designing and building the
steam condensers for SEAWOLF and VIRGINIA class submarines and the latest
CVNX
class carriers as well as being responsible for the construction of the major
reactor plant components. It has been a very rewarding and challenging
career, but it is time to move on.

My love life hasn't been a successful. Wife
#1 lasted less than a year and should have been committed to an
institution. Wife #2 was much better; we had a 16 year relationship
before we parted. Wife #3 was a touch of middle age madness... sex and
rock&roll, but after the fun departed and reality set in, she decided
to split after a three years. I have no plans for another round; as they
say the definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing and
expecting
different results. Just gonna be buddies as I have continued to be Diana
Penny (nee Ironmonger, Roos Rds class of 63 although she left before
graduating)
and Maureen Anto (nee Byrtus also RRHS 63).