On Oct 23, 8:15*am, Jack Linthicum
wrote:
On Oct 23, 11:05*am, frank wrote:
And then there's China Lake... *We have it all. *
BB
I guess everybody has some mountain to climb in their life.
It's just fate whether you live in Kansas or Tibet.
China Lake had some nice toys. Interesting what showed up there.
We had A-7s, they used A-7s for drones for air to air work. There was
quite a lot of under the table parts swapping going on. Their good
tires for our bad tires to put on their drone they were going to shoot
down anyway. Needed parts to keep things flying. Might have been some
other incentives between the maintenance guys.
Everybody flew when required so commands were happy.
My parents went to a tiny Kansas college, Southwestern, that seems to
have furnished a lot of the early staff members for China Lake. I met
them at the college's annual picnic in Southern California. In
addition one of my father's YMCA club members became the basketball
coach and then principle of Sherman Burroughs HS. Later I had contact
with people from China Lake who wanted help from the FCC. I don't know
if it is the desert air or just a tendency for hiring nice people but
I never met a bad personality *from China Lake.
You just got lucky
It _is_ a bit like the show Eureka, there are
so many S&E's and post-grad degrees in this town you can't swing a
dead cat without knocking someone's pocket protector loose.
There are several schools that seem to dominate the recruiting
efforts. Rolla, MO. UT, and A&M have a strong presence. There's a
generation of old timers that have recently retired that every third
one was from New Mexico.
The Physics Dept. used to have a strong showing from UofAz and
Rochester. But Cal Poly seems to have the most consistent level of
alumni working here, probably because of the proximity, reputation,
and the fact that there are so many generations that work here.
Kids graduate from the local HS and leave swearing they'll never come
back to this terrible place. After a year or so of work once they've
completed college/service a whole lot of them come back. A lot of
them either come back to work on the base or teach in the schools.
As for the personality thing I equate it to the Submarine service.
When you live in a harsh, isolated environment, you learn to work with
and depend on each other. It develops the skills that make good
neighbors. I also think it's hard to survive such a place if you
don't have a sense of humor.
A lot of people are like me in that we came here figuring we'd put up
with it for a few years and then move on to greener pastures. But
between the interesting/rewarding work, great people, and small town
atmosphere it seems like if you don't leave in your first 3 years, you
stay forever. (Exceptions to every rule of course.)
BB
I guess everybody has some mountain to climb in their life.
It's just fate whether you live in Kansas or Tibet.