[fingpilot]

I LAUGHED MY A$$ OFF when I saw this thread today!

Had completely forgotten that I had started it. I saw the title, and thought, 'Some other poor SOB had to do what I did', and then realized it was ME!

OK, Update all these years later...

I ended up driving to Redstone Arsenal in Northern Alabama when a friend (who knew nothing of my 'situation') called and needed help on a 'project). I was in Flagstaff, behind a snow plow at dawn waiting for the sun to come up so they could open I-40 after a big snow.

My friend and I had worked on a couple of 'projects' in the way-back days, on something that is common now, the concept of UAV's. He had gotten seriously ill at a really bad time in his current project and needed a stand-in while he had surgery. I still had all the clearances and was able to get up to speed on his project quickly. I arrived in Huntsville 3 days later and went right to work. His health had gotten bad enough that the surgery wasn't going to work.

6 years later I was still there. When I 'retired' from there, I was running the small and medium UAV programs for the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. Over a hundred employees, spread out all over the world flying missions as diverse as ground surface to air missile targets, 50-cal targets for Humvees, autonomous autopilot birds for Navy gun and missile live fire drills. Sigint and Elint observation drones, counter-drone research, low-observable tactics and materials.

Had a blast. Bought a big Diesel-pusher RV with a trailer that has the car and all my toys in it, and now follow the sun, north in the summer, south in the winter. Will take posts as a camp host at National Parks. Last summer at Lake Moomaw in the Appalachians, last winter at a beachfront park in Biloxi.

Am having fun! I loved all the ideas, but surprisingly had BTDT on a lot of them.

I might still have a trick or two up my sleeve!