[Jeff Higgins]

Thanks, Paul for chiming in and providing some experienced insight into how these contracts work, and the differences between them. I have no experience in that arena. I'm just passing on what us poor dumb engineers thought we "knew" about all of it. It's obviously more complex than I understand. What we did pick up on, what was absolutely unmistakeable, was the manner in which we were allowed to approach things in our jobs. After the merger, it was very much no longer the "playground" into which I hired, with no one worrying about, nor accountable, for cost. After the merger, that was the only thing that mattered.

I remember one day in particular, post merger, when a bunch of us were attending some training class (we layer began to euphemistically refer to these as "reeducation camps"). The instructor at the front of the room asked the class "what is the Boeing Company in business to do?"

"Make airplanes!!!!" was the jubilant reply from all of us kids in the sandbox. High fives all the way around, "boy, this is going to be easy", etc...

Stern silence, and "that" look from the teacher at the front of the room... "Wrong. The Boeing Company is in business to make money."

It was on that day that we all knew we were doomed...