Chapter 13: A Light On My Path

Page 33

In the Navy, I worked on missile system computers and search radars.

I rose in the ranks fast to first class petty officer and before I left the Navy, I was assigned to be an instructor at the Damneck Guided Missile base near Virginia Beach, Virginia. Needless to say, Jackie and I had two girls by then and we opted out of the Navy. I was honorably discharged in December of

1970 after returning from my third Vietnam cruise. We had bought a house in Minneapolis near Jackie’s folks prior to leaving for Vietnam. She stayed at the new home with the girls; I finished my final cruise on the USS King.

When I got out of the Navy, unemployment was about 13% in the local engineering markets around the Minneapolis area. I joined a group of unemployed engineers and technicians selling Nutrilite products and was exposed to vitamins. I soon got a job at RCA installing television antennas and later repairing consumer electronic goods. I wound up with an unsold

inventory of Nutrilite vitamins. Amway later acquired Nutrilite products and I believe the vitamins are still available. I didn’t sell any vitamins; I even wondered at the time if people would pay $30 a month for them. I couldn’t see them going to waste, so I consumed the vitamins myself at the

age of 25. I couldn’t believe how much better they made me feel and since then I have always taken vitamins. If I had the vitamins, minerals and herbs I would like to have on hand, it would be nothing for me to consume 50 tablets in the morning and another 20 or more at night. I have consumed

vitamins for the last 32 years in various amounts. I could never get Jackie interested in them and admittedly it takes a little courage to get them down daily in that kind of volume. Occasionally, it is just not in me either.

While at RCA and then later at WCCO-TV as a broadcast engineer, I started to repair consumer electronic products in my basement during the evenings and weekends. It eventually led me into various business ventures over the course of the next eight years. After leaving WCCO-TV for one

business venture that quickly failed, I accepted a job as a computer repair engineer. It quickly led into the manager’s position where I directed a team of seven engineers in repairing stock brokerage, utility company and bank computer systems. I was still the field service manager for the Minneapolis

Bunker Ramo office when Jackie and I decided to move in 1972. We had three children and Minneapolis announced an unacceptable busing plan.