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Sketchy Bio ~ Story Style
 I was born in Staten Island, New York, in 1930 and graduated from
Public School 14 as one of two male honor students among a host of
girl honor students. Completing the tenth grade, I enlisted in the
United States Navy at age 17 and achieved a perfect score on the
recruiting Eddy test for intelligence. I was therefore given the
responsibility of carrying the new enlistment records from Manhattan
via train to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center for fifteen or so
recruits. Were it not for several of the other recruits, the records
might never have arrived inasmuch as I was repeatedly forgetting to
guard them.
Upon completing a boot camp that required rigorous discipline and
cleanliness, plus physical, weapons, and shipboard skills ~
including flag hoist, semaphore, and Morse code ~ I was tested with
all other recruits for arithmetic and general classification skills.
Hence, I was assigned to Aviation Electronics School at the Naval
Air Technical Training Center in Memphis, Tennessee, which required
the highest scores for acceptance over other rates.
Graduating in roughly nine months to complete the above school, I
was selected to remain at NATTC as a platform (theory) instructor
for aviation transmitters and receivers; including class C biased
Armstrong, Collpitts, and Hartley (self-starting) oscillators,
push-pull/push-push power amplifiers, and class A, B, and C
amplification. Also, I taught superheterodyne radio theory including
radio-frequency stages, intermediate-frequency stages, and audio
amplifiers as well as mixer-stage dynamics, automatic-gain control,
limiters, detectors, and class A biased audio amplifiers. I was at
that time the youngest aviation electronics instructor in the naval
air force at just turning age 18. In addition, I received a special
commendation for outstanding performance while describing naval
aviation electronics in simple terms at civilian fairs.
While stationed at NATTC, Memphis, my extra-curricular activities
included leading drummer for our station band and manager of our
nationally famous swimming team. Our marching band played before
huge crowds during the Cotton Carnival as well as the Memphis Open
Air Symphonies.
I reenlisted prior to the Korean rumble and was sent to All-Weather
Combat Aircrew training in Barbers Point, Hawaii. I became
proficient at aerial navigation (including geographic sector search,
radius-of-action, moving base); air-to-air gunnery; countermeasures
operation; antisubmarine warfare operation; divebombing; Morse-code
radio transmission; and radar operation including air-to-air
intercept. This training was put to use during sixty night-attack
combat missions I flew over North Korea in single-engine AD4NL
Douglas Skyraider fighter bombers ~ destroying trains, bridges,
trucks, railroad tracks, and enemy personnel. I was awarded numerous
citations including being recommended for the Distinguished Flying
Cross (which is now being reconsidered for award by the Chief of
Naval Operations Award Committee on the desk of Cmdr. Mahar by way
of Captain Paul N. Gray (Squadron Commander) and Captain Ray
Schultz. My name has been added to the Roll of Honor for Combat Air
Crewmen (now given the appellation Navigator/Bombardier, RIO (Radar
Intercept Officer), or Naval Flight Officer) aboard the USS Yorktown
in Charlotte, South Carolina.
Graduating in three years from San Diego State University with a
bachelor’s degree in 1956 and matriculating while working 40 hours
per week, I entered the aerospace industry with General Dynamics and
wrote the first technical manual assigned a technical order number
for the US Air Force for any missile system (Flight Control System ~
Atlas missile). More significantly, I wrote the captions to all
photographs sent to President Dwight D. Eisenhower apprising him of
our missile status vs. the Soviet Union. By the end of my technical
writing and editing experiences, including the acceptance test
procedures for the Lunar Excursion Module Doppler Velocity Sensors
for the last 200 feet of letdown on the moon, I had written all
manner of technical documents stacked as high as ones hips and then
moved into mass-market publishing as the owner of San Diego
Publishing Company (since 1981). The core of my non-technical
writing turned to economics for which I was nominated twice for the
Nobel Prize in Economics for principles based on ethics and morality
(Constitution Convention ~ A Compelling Case for Enactment of
Fair-Enterprise Economics and others).
In February of 1957 I acquired a commercial pilot’s license which I
earned while matriculating through college as well as driving a
delivery truck 40 hours/week.
I married immediately after graduating from San Diego State and
fathered three sons for whom I gained exclusive custody as a single
parent in 1965 and raised alone until their age of majority. All
three sons are law-abiding, responsible, self-reliant family men.
They are all now in their late forties and my son Tracy (here in
Tulsa) has rewarded me by adopting Danielle Catherine Thomson (now
age 8) whom we acquired when Dani was 2 days old. Danielle is
bi-racial and the delight of our lives.
I am a licensed
foster parent in the State of California; received the Military
Order of World Wars award; a life member of Alcoholics Anonymous
(one day at a time) and have been bone dry for 35 years (last drink
July 11, 1971); life member of the National Rifle Association,
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, and the naval aviation
Tailhook Association for whom I have written several articles. My
aviation accounts can also be seen in our nation’s prestigious
WWII-Korean aviation journal, Flight Journal magazine.
During WWII, I became a Victory Farm Volunteer during the summer
months and worked a dairy farm in Saint Albans, Vermont, 16
hours/day to help the war effort as a teenager for $1/day. I am
currently close to receiving my Ph.D. for private research in
economics, political science, and history dedicated to ending
poverty without resorting to big government; economic principles
based on ethics and morality.
Following are most of the publications I authored, edited, rewrote,
formatted, and/or published.
Mass Market Titles
-
Constitutional Convention ~ A Compelling Case
for Enactment of Fair-Enterprise Economics (Authored/Published).
-
Jackrabbits to Jets ~ The History of NAS North
Island (Edit/Rewrite/Publish)
-
The Prime Minister is Missing
(Edit/Rewrite/Publish).
-
Cooking with Whole Wheat Flour and Honey
(Edit/Rewrite/Publish)
-
Fundamentals of Project Performance
(Edit/Rewrite/Publish).
Titles Not Shown in Photo
-
We Can Change the World (Edit/Rewrite/Publish).
-
The Zzyzx Encounters (Authored/Published).
-
Seafood for the Brain ~ Food for Thought
(Authored/Published).
-
"Not Now! Maybe Later" (Edit/Illustrate/Publish).
Technical Publications Not Shown in Photo
-
WS107A (Atlas Missile) Familiarization Manual (Authored).
-
Series A Component Test Equipment (Atlas Missile)
(Authored/Illustrated).
-
Acceptance Test Procedures ~ Doppler Velocity Sensors; Lunar
Excursion Module & Surveyor Vehicles (last two hundred feet of
letdown on the Moon) (Authored).
-
Flight Control System Operational Manual (Atlas Missile)
(Authored).
-
Airline Pilot’s Guides ~ Flight Director and Course Indicators
(Authored/Illustrated).15) Others (technical).
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