WEBVTT 00:35.669 --> 00:37.836 I had gotten married right out of high 00:37.836 --> 00:40.060 school . So it took , and I had to work 00:40.060 --> 00:42.227 my way through college , so it took me 00:42.227 --> 00:45.669 7 years . And although I had taken ROTC . 00:46.840 --> 00:49.099 It took me 3 years longer after I'd 00:49.099 --> 00:53.029 finished my 4 years of ROTC . In ROTC 00:53.580 --> 00:56.430 department had forgot about me . So 00:56.430 --> 00:58.430 they couldn't commission me with my 00:58.430 --> 01:01.459 regular group when I graduated . Some 01:01.459 --> 01:05.349 of my engineer . Uh , friends had said , 01:05.559 --> 01:08.239 well , why don't you Go interview and I 01:08.239 --> 01:10.406 said , Well , nobody's gonna hire me . 01:10.406 --> 01:12.517 I gotta go in the army . Well , I had 01:12.517 --> 01:14.406 been working as a draftsman and a 01:14.406 --> 01:16.628 surveyor and everything for the city of 01:16.628 --> 01:18.860 Lubbock , and so the corps hired me and 01:18.860 --> 01:20.860 I told them up front , I said , you 01:20.860 --> 01:22.916 know , I got to go in the army . And 01:22.916 --> 01:24.971 they said , it makes no difference . 01:24.971 --> 01:27.138 We'll put you on military leave . So , 01:27.138 --> 01:29.459 OK , so I took the job , graduated 01:29.459 --> 01:31.681 Saturday night , came to work on Monday 01:31.681 --> 01:33.403 morning , so I was sworn in in 01:33.403 --> 01:35.459 September by Colonel Fickerson , who 01:35.459 --> 01:37.737 was the district engineer at that time . 01:37.737 --> 01:39.792 At that point in time , the district 01:39.792 --> 01:42.690 was located on Vicy Street . This , uh , 01:42.739 --> 01:44.850 federal building was not in existence 01:44.850 --> 01:47.769 then . And the cop was located above a 01:48.220 --> 01:51.220 manufacturing facility on Vickery . We 01:51.220 --> 01:53.660 used to go out at noontime and watch 01:53.660 --> 01:55.771 the , the trains go by . That was our 01:55.771 --> 01:58.300 entertainment at the time . Like I 01:58.300 --> 02:01.500 indicated , I had , uh , was in ROTC in 02:01.500 --> 02:04.269 college . And they brought some 02:04.269 --> 02:07.349 helicopters down from Fort Sill and had 02:07.349 --> 02:09.669 them on display , and they said now if 02:09.669 --> 02:11.910 any of you would like to fly in the 02:11.910 --> 02:15.869 army , you'll get $100 flight pay . So 02:15.869 --> 02:18.860 you know , sign me up , chief . And so 02:18.860 --> 02:21.082 I got to they taught the army taught me 02:21.082 --> 02:23.249 how to fly a fixed wing while I was in 02:23.249 --> 02:25.789 college , and that made me commit to a 02:25.789 --> 02:28.750 three-year active duty stint . So when 02:28.750 --> 02:30.990 I went on active duty , I went to 02:30.990 --> 02:34.199 flight school . Then I went to Vietnam 02:34.570 --> 02:37.169 and flew over there for a year and at 02:37.169 --> 02:38.891 the end of that , I was really 02:38.891 --> 02:40.947 convinced I wanted to make an active 02:41.210 --> 02:44.970 duty career out of the army . But 02:44.970 --> 02:47.081 they said I was an engineer officer , 02:47.081 --> 02:49.248 so the only place I could go was where 02:49.248 --> 02:51.359 the engineer branch wanted me to go . 02:51.929 --> 02:54.529 Which was either Iran , which I didn't 02:54.529 --> 02:57.330 know where it was back in the 60s , or 02:57.330 --> 03:00.440 Panama and mapped the Amazon jungle 03:00.649 --> 03:03.490 from the air . Well , I had been shot 03:03.490 --> 03:06.089 down in Vietnam and somebody came and 03:06.089 --> 03:09.160 got me . And nobody gonna be come and 03:09.160 --> 03:11.382 get me in the Amazon jungle except some 03:11.382 --> 03:13.493 crocodiles , so I said , I don't like 03:13.493 --> 03:15.660 that either . They said you'll have to 03:15.660 --> 03:17.882 get out . So I went to Fort Walters and 03:17.882 --> 03:19.938 I met a civilian , and he said , I'm 03:19.938 --> 03:22.160 the commander of a reserve unit in Fort 03:22.160 --> 03:24.820 Worth . If you would like to continue 03:24.820 --> 03:27.570 your military career and fly , I'll let 03:27.570 --> 03:31.460 you join my unit , so I did . And so I 03:31.460 --> 03:33.649 was there for some period of time . 03:33.940 --> 03:36.910 Well , I was selected to uh . Be the 03:36.910 --> 03:40.440 commander of the unit . It had 33 03:40.440 --> 03:44.309 Hueys and 300 and something personnel . 03:45.179 --> 03:48.309 So I had a dual role career . 03:49.619 --> 03:51.720 In the military as well as civilian 03:51.720 --> 03:53.776 life , periodically , someone in the 03:53.776 --> 03:55.664 district would need some aviation 03:55.664 --> 03:57.960 support and so long as it was official 03:57.960 --> 04:00.639 business , I could carry civilians on 04:00.639 --> 04:03.559 the army helicopter . And so every time 04:03.559 --> 04:06.039 there was a major flood , somebody in 04:06.039 --> 04:08.261 hydraulics would go out and look at the 04:08.261 --> 04:10.483 flood waves and see how they were doing 04:10.483 --> 04:13.250 and uh Things of that nature . And one 04:13.250 --> 04:14.861 of the things that was quite 04:14.861 --> 04:18.239 interesting , uh back in the 70s . Uh , 04:19.540 --> 04:21.769 The district was doing the preliminary 04:21.769 --> 04:23.602 design to make the Trinity River 04:23.602 --> 04:27.410 navigable all the way up to uh just 04:27.820 --> 04:31.589 uh west of Loop 820 . And uh 04:32.470 --> 04:35.119 So I was able to fly the district 04:35.119 --> 04:38.230 photographer low level along the 04:38.230 --> 04:40.397 Trinity River all the way to Galveston 04:40.397 --> 04:43.609 Bay . And then associated with that . 04:44.959 --> 04:47.390 The 3 star general chief of engineering 04:47.390 --> 04:49.730 came down and wanted a briefing on our 04:49.730 --> 04:52.339 project , but I flew him along the uh 04:52.910 --> 04:55.549 axis of the dam and some other areas 04:55.549 --> 04:57.709 that he wanted to look at . After I 04:57.709 --> 04:59.931 left operations , I moved into what was 04:59.931 --> 05:03.160 then project management , uh , area , 05:03.549 --> 05:05.716 and I moved into the Air Force section 05:05.716 --> 05:07.938 because we had an Air Force , an army , 05:07.938 --> 05:11.119 insulation support uh sections . As 05:11.119 --> 05:13.230 well as their owner finance group and 05:13.230 --> 05:15.230 so I moved into that branch and one 05:15.230 --> 05:18.309 thing I might add back in the 70s . Uh , 05:18.339 --> 05:20.579 the Fort Worth district was targeted . 05:22.100 --> 05:25.899 To create a , a study group for 05:25.899 --> 05:29.820 negotiating contracts . So we wrote the 05:29.820 --> 05:33.140 textbook , we did all the practical 05:33.140 --> 05:36.670 exercises . And developed a uh a 05:36.670 --> 05:39.299 one-week course on negotiating 05:39.299 --> 05:41.188 contracts . So if you got all the 05:41.188 --> 05:43.466 regulations you needed and all of that , 05:43.466 --> 05:45.299 that sense has been passed on to 05:45.299 --> 05:47.521 contracting division , but back then it 05:47.521 --> 05:49.910 was done in military branch . And I 05:49.910 --> 05:51.854 taught the course all the way from 05:51.854 --> 05:54.077 Seoul , Korea to Munich , Germany , and 05:54.077 --> 05:56.299 every district in the United States had 05:56.299 --> 05:58.709 military design work and even after I 05:58.709 --> 06:01.470 retired in '95 , the corps brought me 06:01.470 --> 06:03.829 back on under contract to continue 06:03.829 --> 06:05.829 teaching the course for a couple of 06:05.829 --> 06:07.940 years . But that was , that was , you 06:07.940 --> 06:10.218 know , I had interesting projects , uh , 06:10.218 --> 06:12.107 you know , I was involved with uh 06:12.107 --> 06:14.218 negotiating the first design contract 06:14.218 --> 06:16.273 for Brooke Army Medical Center , and 06:16.273 --> 06:18.929 that was in the 80s . At that point in 06:18.929 --> 06:21.040 time we had a medical section because 06:21.040 --> 06:23.262 we had so many hospitals being designed 06:23.262 --> 06:25.151 to rehabbed . I mean , I had such 06:25.151 --> 06:27.262 interesting projects over the years . 06:27.262 --> 06:29.760 I'm just proud to be able to be a small 06:29.760 --> 06:33.109 part of that big wheel . I still 06:33.109 --> 06:33.950 believe Corre .