froggy's profile

I Served in the U.S. Navy. And I was a part of history. I was there during the early atomic bomb tests. Participated in Operation Hardtack in which we set off 13 Atomic bombs. Some less than four miles away. And we were aware that, as Bob Dylan famously sang: “The times they are a changing.”>br>
Seeing a nuclear explosion in the movies or on TV is one thing. Seeing one up close and personal is a terrifying experience. And I don’t mean as an officer back in the bunkers, or away off in the distance on the flag ship. I mean close. The white out is nearly blinding, even with your eyes closed and your forearm pressed against your eyes. You could see through your arm.. see the bone. Shine a flashlight through your hand sometime. You’ll have a…

I Served in the U.S. Navy. And I was a part of history. I was there during the early atomic bomb tests. Participated in Operation Hardtack in which we set off 13 Atomic bombs. Some less than four miles away. And we were aware that, as Bob Dylan famously sang: “The times they are a changing.”>br>
Seeing a nuclear explosion in the movies or on TV is one thing. Seeing one up close and personal is a terrifying experience. And I don’t mean as an officer back in the bunkers, or away off in the distance on the flag ship. I mean close. The white out is nearly blinding, even with your eyes closed and your forearm pressed against your eyes. You could see through your arm.. see the bone. Shine a flashlight through your hand sometime. You’ll have a dim idea of what I mean. I still have nightmares of ‘white outs’. Afterwards, dead fish floating as far as the eye can see. And every man jack of us knowing that the world had just changed. Forever. ==========================================================================

A long time businessman, I was the volunteer director in the late eighties of an apprenticeship program for street people for 6 and a half years. We taught them the trade of wood working. We took no donations of any kind and paid the students and the overhead with money we received for the products we showed them how to build. Office furniture. The quality was legendary and the prices were unremarkable. So it can be done without panhandling the government or begging from the populace. Of course myself and the staff were unpaid, so that helped. We paid the apprentices minimum wage while they learned. And of course the regular woodworkers were paid also. We had 18 success stories out of 200 apprentices over 6.5 yrs… it seems a low %. .. so many drifted back into drugs and the street scene before they graduated from the program. The call of the wild is powerful. After six and a half years without a paycheck, I had to go back to work. lol.