[Jeff Higgins]

Again, sorry for the misunderstanding. We're on the same page.

To satisfy your curiosity as to whether I'm "a skilled worker in assembly or and Engineer or both...", I would have to answer "all of the above". At least at one time or another.

A quick "history of me in aerospace": Graduated high school in '78, and went on in pursuit of a degree in mechanical engineering. After a year and a half, dad dies, leaving me as the oldest male at home. I drop out of school and go to work at Boeing in an effort to help support my mom and two younger siblings. I started there at the ripe old age of 19 as an apprentice tool maker. By the time I'm 26, I've been promoted to a lead position over about 70 other tool makers (way, way out of sequence, union seniority wise, thereby pissing off all the old union do-nothings).

By then, my mom was working and two younger siblings were out of the house. So, fulfilling my "obligations" at home, I up and got married and started a family. Just in time to weather a couple of union strikes...

Having had enough of that (and the union in general), I restarted my education after 16 years and two kids, and fulfilled my dream of becoming an engineer. And I've had a ball ever since.

I initially made the "easy" transition at work, from the tooling world I had grown familiar with as a tool maker, into the design end of the tools I had built for so long. Growing bored with that about ten years ago, I made the jump into the world of "AOG" - "Aircraft on Ground", wherein we repair damaged aircraft. Often under "austere" conditions, often in third world shyt holes, often ill-equipped and therefore engineering "on the fly", I've never had more fun.

I'm in the best of both worlds - I get to design the tools and equipment for a unique in-field repair, and then often get to roll my sleeves up and get down and dirty with the mechanics, working side by side to use my equipment and affect the repair. All union boundaries are forgotten, and we go to work.

I'm one of the few "hands on" engineers in a big union company, working with a hand-picked team that transcends all of that union b.s. and just gets it done. Whatever it takes, wherever we need to go. It's great.