[UncleWede]

Preface this with Thanks to all of you.

I have been insulin-dependent since 14, so I could never actively serve. But once I graduated HS in 84, I started working for the Navy at the NAWC Pt. Mugu. Spent 15 years working all kinds of projects. Coding R3 units and building test sets from scratch for QF-4s, basic data inventory, even a few months coding in the F-14 SITS lab. Have you ever seen a F14 radar directed at a seagull on the rocks? I learned then that when the cockpit rolled out of the bay, it was definitely time to get out of the surf.

Did I mention surf? Pt. Mugu, on a south swell, has a wave equivalent to the Bonsai Pipeline, with the exception that the bottom is sand and not coral, and an average water temp of 58. The weather station had a box drawn on the preview screen to tell us when the storm came into the window, and 3 days until surf arrived. We would surf our lunch hour anytime between 11 and 1. I was known as "polar bear" because my coworkers would come out and check what shade of blue I was in my trunks, then decide whether they could wear the Springer or needed a Full.

Kauai is a beautiful island, especially when your rich uncle is paying you to go there. I did some coding of the radars that visiting navies would use on the submarine test range. Could never get them to allow me to, just for a brief second, broadcast something sinister like a missile launch at JDF. We would work HARD those 2 weeks we were there, 12 hour days plus driving time, but we enjoyed ourselves equally hard. I lost the car keys out at Polihale, but amazingly found them again rolling in the surf, that water is so clear.