So how did I get to where I am now?
Having not prepared for college during high school, I joined the US Navy, much to the relief of my parents for whom I was never again a financial burden.
For eight years I was a Cold-War warrior, trailing Soviet naval activities in the Mediterranean Sea from various ships and submarines while stationed in Naples, Italy; watching Soviet weapons testing in the Black Sea while stationed in Turkey; and serving four full years analyzing data at the National Security Agency.
I then became a defense contractor until the Berlin Wall came down and the company I worked for – Magnavox Electronic Systems Company – faded into obscurity.
By this time, I was married to an Italian woman I had met while stationed at Naples, and I had two young children. Having no prospects in America, I moved to Italy where I struggled for eight years to support my family. I usually held multiple jobs at a time, including three years as a waiter/busboy in a restaurant near the naval base where I’d served a decade earlier. The Americans who came to dine were surprised to hear my perfect American English accent, to which I quipped, “since the end of the Cold-War, there are many unemployed defense contractors, so you should expect to see more people like me.” It was here I learned many lessons that would carry me through my entire career, such as the Pareto Principal (I noted that 20 percent of our customers caused us 80 percent of our work), although I didn’t know it by name back then.
Another job I held was working at the Navy Exchange on the naval base in Naples. Personal computers were arriving into the store for the first time, and that was my introduction to the world of information technology (IT). In 1998, I moved to Germany with a US defense contractor to repair IT equipment at military bases across Europe. I eventually became the depot manager and was having a good time with a decent job, but the contract went away.
I then worked in Bosnia–Herzegovina – the second most heavily mined country in the world – in support of DoD forces, and, after two years, deployed to Afghanistan – the most heavily mined country in the world – to lead teams of IT subject matter experts in maintaining the tactical networks supporting US and NATO forces fighting the war on terror. Between 2006 and 2016, I spent a total of six full years “boots on the ground’ over several deployments. In between, I continued supporting our forces downrange from assignments at USCENTCOM HQ on MacDill Air Force Base in Florida and from DISA HQ on Fort Mead, Maryland.
I returned to the US for good in 2017 with Trace Systems, an organization I helped grow from a one-contract company to a respected, medium-sized defense contractor with over 300 employees deployed across five continents with 1.2 billion dollars’ worth of programs.
Along the way, my wife and I divorced after 37 years of a tumultuous marriage. My kids, having lived most of their lives in Italy, now reside in Germany where they struggle to make a living. I’ve settled down in Northern Virginia with a lovely woman who is already retired. She’s having a blast, but she looks forward to the day when I quit working and can travel more frequently with her.
Alas, my career path was not one that allowed me to prepare for early retirement, so I expect to stay in the workforce until I turn 70. Fortunately, I have the type of job that one can easily endure into later years. I wouldn’t be able to do this if I was a coal miner or a factory worker.
I’ve been able to navigate the ladder of success – up and down several times – thanks in part to my ability to “read the writing on the wall”. I depended on technical certifications with Microsoft technologies to propel myself into the IT field. I identified the need to become cybersecurity savvy and became CISSP certified in 2009. I realized my true ability was in managing projects and people, rather than working hands-on with technology, so I achieved the PMP certification in 2013. At the same time, I recognized that further advancement would be challenging without a college degree, so I took online classes with the Western Governors University and graduated with a BS in IT Systems in November 2013.
However, my learning does not stop here. I’m studying new technologies in support of Citizen Development and researching how products such as Microsoft OneNote can make life easier for program and project managers in this complex world. I long to be more involved with projects impacting digital transformation and the democratization of technology. At 63 years of age, I realize I should figure out what I want to do for the rest of my life, but I’m not ready to grow up yet!
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