The Kennedy thing

My wife and I have watched many presentations about the assassination of JFK and the repeated displays of his 707-320 that they flew to Dallas immediately brings back my work on that airplane and the large ventral fin exhibited on the back end. A patch fix until full rudder power was added to the 707's. Then I remembered that when JFK was assassinated I had just awakened from from the short daytime sleep that I got from working 1200-0800 on a program that he initiated, the Manpower Development and Training Act. I designed and supervised the operation of a program to train Beginner Aircraft Mechanics. It was designed to train unemployed and underemployed people to achieve the skills to enable them to work in the aircraft industry. We had an 80% success rate of students hired by Boeing. The stories of some of the students are unbelievable today, like one farm boy from Sequim, Wa. who hitch-hiked to Renton for the training. He had little money and lived under the I-90 freeway bridge in a sleeping bag living on potato chips and peanuts. His lack of a lunch bag was noticed by the other trainees and one day they announced that they all were going out to get a hamburger and left their lunches in the shop. This kid not only eat some for lunch but saved some for dinner...under the freeway. Five years later I saw him as a supervisor in sub assembly.

 

Glad that you enjoy them. I did a few things and it's fun to talk about them. I didn't intend concentrate on anything that we did but to point out one of the things that Kennedy did. Much of that training program is still in use at Boeing.

 

That training program was an eye opener in several ways. We had never done a program funded by the government, operated in a voc-tech school, designed by the company, and conducted by a company employee under the supervision of a university PHD educator. We ran 24 hours a day as class after class came through, kids from the countryside and inner city. So we had to cope with a variety of attitudes and different levels of education.
I had prepared an outline of instruction for them to write in the details of lessons as we went along. I noticed that several kids weren't writing anything so I questioned them. " I don't write too good," was one answer. I can't read very fast was another. I spent the weekend rewriting the lesson plan and changing how the instructors were to teach after that.
Then came the lessons in using the decimal measuring system...breaking an inch into tenths, hundredths, and thousandths. Half the kids had no idea what I was talking about. In exasperation I wrote 1.00 on the board and asked what that was, thinking that someone would say "ONE" but a black kid said "ONE DOLLAR". I wrote .50 and immediately it was " FIFTY CENTS" or....HALF A DOLLAR...one half of 1.00. It then caught fire and we went from 1.00 down to .10 and .01 and ran out of the money thing when we got to one thousandth we invented some new money and the kids latched on the decimal system. The black kid said, " Man, why didn't you say it was like money? I can do that S***t." Later, when they were making their first detail part, I asked the kid to tell me how long the flange was ( 4.80") and he quickly answered "FOUR DOLLARS AND EIGHTY CENTS". The flange was exactly 4.80 inches, using his 6'' scale properly.
We turned out some pretty good structural mechanics who went right to work but it was a jolt at first to see the lack of tool skill in so many city kids and the lack of basic education. I had assumed too high a level in the overall skills of incoming students and I learned as much or more then they did. It was nice to see so many of them working on the 727 in the years to come.

 

This brings to mind another student who disrupted a class in Nuclear Defense. He was a big blond raw-boned security guard and ex-wheat farmer from Montana. I was explaining how to calculate radiation dosage over a period of time and he burst out, " HEY! That there is a algebraic!" I said that it was indeed an algebraic equation. " We're gittin' them in class right now! I know how to do those!" He was Johnny-On-The- Spot helping everyone in class, even some engineers who gracefully accepted his help.The guard/student was attending night school to get his high school diploma. One day six years later I bumped into him in one of the engineering buildings and damned if he didn't have an engineer's badge on him. He had graduated from the University of Washington.

 

I only executed an assignment that was dumped on me on the 4th day of a much needed vacation and I did my thing. Looking back at it, I didn't get a vacation for another year, that meant two years without a break. I had to take one almost as a medical issue. Then it was SST, C-5 proposal, and 747. Roaring times at Boeing.

 

My goodness, I don't know how to properly respond to your comments. I have always enjoyed people and I enjoy talking with and to everyone so I feel that this forum has afforded me a vehicle to share things that I like...aviation and people. I have done nothing special or fancy, just a busybody blabbermouth who has been able to stick around for a long time so that I can hopefully pass a few interesting things along.

 

Tim, you have a PM

 

All of the generous comments have left me stumped and a bit uneasy...there was never any intension to do anything but to share stuff that I still enjoy thinking about. You know how guys of the same flock like to get together and shoot the bull about their good days. That is what you have given to me and I soak it up. It amazes me that I have met only two of you but I feel that we are all close friends and not many people are privileged to be as fortunate as I. A simple thank you seems pretty lame but that is all I can think of at this moment.
Book? What book? I was just kidding and now I really have to start writing something! Okay, I'm doing the hardest part now, making changes requested by the editors and fleshing out two big sections, so while you folks are working at your jobs I'm going through some drudgery too. ..but it's getting there.
When Thanksgiving rolls around I always remember our spread at Hondo AB in '44. We couldn't believe the white table cloths, individual places at the table, and a full FRESH COOKED TURKEY dinner with all the trimmings and pie. Our CO worked us hard but treated us well. So, I hope all of you have a good day tomorrow as we all have plenty to be thankful for.