2009 didn’t turn out to be the best in my employment history. After being laid off at Wycliffe Associates, my only option within a reasonable distance from home was to sign on with Wal-Mart in Murrieta Hot Springs as an overnight restock associate (part-time).
Working at Wal-Mart was fun, especially with the team we had there. As with any organization – my time in the Military, any civilian jobs or volunteer groups with whom I’ve ever been involved – EVER -- there are always some screwoffs and some genuinely devoted hard-chargers, managers of varying degrees of competence and experience. I can work with just about anybody, and I can handle just about any conflicts or personal foibles among my co-workers (usually by just distilling it all down to a chuckle or two, or a disappointing shake of the head, and moving on to the next bump along the road.
But when that last option came up to go to work with Alutiiq to support the Navy down at Point Loma in San Diego, I jumped at it. For one thing, it meant working DAY shift, not all through the darkness of the night stocking shelves for the next day’s onslaught of bargain hunters at Wal-Mart.
Unknown to me, the security clearances and accesses that I had enjoyed throughout the late 70s through the mid-1980s don’t mean anything now, as they had to start all over. Yes, we had some financial setbacks this year, which caused us untold difficulties at home, but I hadn’t thought that my pre-existing Secret clearance from my Air Force days would be copromised by the fact that the current economical downturn has caused us to be in a precarious fiscal situation.
Apparently that, combined with some medical issues I’ve been dealing with over the years, make me some kind of security risk, maybe to the point where I can be “bought” in order to compromise security.
I can say without the very slightest doubt in my mind, at the top of my l lungs if anyone’s willing to listen:
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I love this country. I’d rather die tha do harm to my country, or to anyone in it – military or civilian. I couldn’t see myself living anywhere else in the world. This is my HOME!
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Even recently, I was asked online by a fellow aviation enthusiast about a component radio direction-finding system from the old HC-130 aircraft I worked on back in Alaska in the late 1970s. I’d been out of the service for over 20 years at that point, but I still take my security clearances and obligations seriously, so I contacted HQ USAF to find out what, if anything, I could respond to the inquiries from the public.
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They were amazed, and grateful that I take my security clearance seriously even after all these years. They told me I could discuss anything I wanted about it, with the exception of the security frequencies and ranges which the tracker system could cover.
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I followed those instructions to the exact letter, and thanked them for the time they took to look back in the archives and let me know what could be discussed.
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That story right there should illustrate quite clearly the fact that I take my security clearances seriously. There are a lot of highly “tall tales” I could tell to regale my former military buddies, but I can’t.
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So I sound like a pretty good candidate for having my secret clearance reactivated, wouldn’t you think? But unfortunately, since my family and I are in financial straits right now, with a bankruptcy pending and a possible loss of our home, it appears to the government that I am now in a position to be “bought” (or “financially compromised” in current lexicon), so that agents of foreign powers could conceivably buy my cooperation and sell out my country.
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I can assure you – and anyone who could possibly be reading this obscure post, that it will be a cold day in Hell before anything like that would happen. I would gladly die rather than compromise my honor or my oath of allegiance to my country.
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But Point Loma Naval Station didn’t see it that way. They declined my preliminary clearance – which would allow me to do some work on the project while the full clearance was issued. They also couldn’t take into account my prior service records, which would more than corroborate my statements above, but due to the time between my prior service and present day, those records are now boxed and stored somewhere in the bowels of the DoD personnel records center in St. Louis and thus are not readily accessible.
So unfortunately, because of a complete comedy of paperwork, what could have been the best job for me in the 21st century was compromised by paperwork, find by an honest citizen and submitted into a system that couldn’t care less.
I hold no ill will against my Alutiiq coworkers, who were always supportive through the entire process, and especially to George and Amanda – not only our next-door neighbors but George was by boss at Alutiiq and a good and true friend – one who literally agonized over the fact that they would have to let me go because without that interim clearance, there’d effectively be no work for me to do!
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Now i’ve been pounding the virtual bricks looking for work ever since, so if anyone knows of a place that need a computer technician with over 30 years of experience fixing everything from four-engine heavy jet transports and combat fighter aircraft, down to programming, maintaining and designing computer systems, applications and networks; setting up wired and wireless network systems in houses or small businesses; and just about anything else you can think of in terms of office equipment and technology…. Well, if you think of something like that, please let me know.
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For the record, I’ve had extensive experience doing technical support for the following companies around the world:
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For a full resume, drop me a note at steve.silverwood@gmail.com and i will be happy to send you one.
//Steve//
steve.silverwood@gmail.com
