So, I was hired by General Electric at Fort Knox to do the same job that I had been doing at Civil Service. General Electric decided that I needed the Instructor Course that had set up at Daytona Beach, Florida. So, I reported in at the General Electric building on Valencia Blvd., right across the street from the Daytona 500 Raceway. We spent the first couple of days in-processing and getting to know our way around Daytona Beach.
I was setting in back of the classroom the first couple of days. As I said before, the building is right across Valencia Blvd. from the raceway. At the start of day two of the class, I moved up to the front so I could heard way the instructor was saying over the sound of the cars going around the track. Boy, was it ever noisy.
After four or five days, the instructors come to realize that I was way ahead of the class on the subjects being presented, so I was called out of class to help the instructors with the flight simulators. This was really interesting to me. No longer worrying about tanks but how to fly planes, bombers, fighters, etc. After that they fairly left me alone as long as I reported in first thing on Monday morning. At this time something interesting happened.
I was at the Valencia Mall one Tuesday and to my surprise I ran into a whole bunch of security guards. They were protecting Tom Cruse and Nichole Kidman. They were in town getting ready to film their new movie, "Days of Thunder". There was a sigh up sheet for extras in the movie. I was ready to sign when I got to thinking, I work for General Electric. So they were going to be there for another day of signing so I went to the boss at General Electric and was told in not uncertain terms was I to sign up to be an extra. Well, there went my shot at Hollywood.
I finished up the course and got my certificate saying I was a certified Instructor/Operator of the U-COFT system. When I got back to Fort Knox, I reported back in to George, and he he said I have some bad news and some bad news. He said pack your bags. They were sending me to either one of three different places and I had my pick. The three choices were: 1) El Paso, Texas, 2) Tucson, Arizona, and 3) El Centro, California. All were to train up the National Guard. That night I talked it over with the family and we decided on Tucson, Arizona.
It was just Mila, Michelle and I that was moving. Michelle was fixing to start her senior year at Buena High School. Mike was already going to the University of Louisville, so we decided to leave him there. When we got to Tucson, it was Cinco de Mayo. Tucson was really crowded so we did not have much of a choice of Hotels or Motels to stay at. I was informed that I was to train up the Arizona National guard. They would come from Phoenix, Tucson, and Fort Huachuca. The next day we moved down to Sierra Vista, Arizona. This is the Fort Huachuca town. All the national guard units did their training down at the Fort. Sierra Vista was similar to Radcliff, Kentucky where we had been living, so we felt right at home.
Everything went fine from May to December. When I called my weekly status in to Fort Knox, I was told that General Electric was underbid on the U-COFT contract so I needed to find me another job. I ask who got the contract and was given the run around. Finally I called and got the secretary on the line and she said a place out in Maryland and gave me the name. I went straight to the library and pulled out the Standard and Poor book and looked them up. I got the name of the recruiting officer and his phone number. I called him up and explained why I was calling. He sounded interested but was fixing to go to an important meeting and he said he would call me as soon as he was free. Twenty minutes later he called, wanted to hire me on the spot but he told me to talk it over with the family. He was offering a nice salary, all tax free, the only catch was I had to relocated to Germany.
That evening I talked it over with the family, called him up the next morning and got the details. They would be relying heavily on me because of my experience with the equipment. Their headquarters over in Germany was at Grafenwoehr, the Armor Center, and I would be staying in the little town of Vilseck, Germany, which is very near to the headquarters. They told me even though I was stationed there, I would be doing a lot of traveling on the Autobahn. They said not to worry as I would be driving a company station wagon with all my tools and equipment in the back.
It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life my friends, til the next time . . .God Speed.
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