I wasn’t able to post anything yesterday since I was swamped
with work to do trying to finish up the programming for a demonstration on
Monday. I work in a company started by two Navy Pilots that mainly develops
software courseware for the military.
While in the Navy I was what was called a Fire Control Technician which was a name I always disliked since people still were not sure what you
did when you said it. It has nothing to do with fighting fires but mainly with
aircraft radars, indicators, and weapons system. As a result people in this
rate were only stationed in fighter and attack aircraft squadrons. I spent
most of my career not working on aircraft but as a technician troubleshooting
and repairing equipment AKA "black boxes." At my first reenlistment I was handed
a folder with a picture of a helicopter on it. I thought this was totally stupid
since in my rate we would never work on helicopters.
This was actually prescient since for the last five years I have
done much work on programming for courseware to teach and troubleshoot
the SH-60, Apache, and Blackhawk helicopters. It is easy to sit in your cubicle
in front of a couple of computer screens intent on the days work and to forget
the end user of your product. Seeing the war coverage lately, especially the
downing of that one Apache, brings back to mind those people who are currently risking
life and limb in their mission to protect us.
