Dedication #1

One of the book’s dedications will be worded based on the questions and further information that follows:

This book is dedicated to someone?

This chapter is dedicated to Earl, a retired Navy chief and civil servant. Earl was a lead high voltage electrician that I was assigned to during part of my internship rotation. Earl did not hold my Bachelor of Science against me, at least not in any detectable or measurable way. Earl contributed immeasurably to my knowledge of the switching stations and relaying systems of the systems used on the naval bases. Earl also taught me how to work safely in and around electrical systems.

Were you an electrician then?

I was sent through the high-voltage shop’s rotation not to become an electrician but because my bosses (whose authority was delegated down through the Public Works and NAVFAC commands) wanted their engineers to be familiar with the equipment and systems used to distribute power throughout the various military bases. My payroll classification and title, from the time I graduated until I left the civil service, became and remained GS-850 Electrical Engineer (except for my last year of civil service in which I did construction contract for the Navy as a federal employee within the Navy Public Works and NAVFAC commands necessitating a change to either interdisciplinary or general engineer) and the duties I performed were consistent with that classification.

Does Earl have a last name?

Earl undoubtedly has a last name, but I cannot recall what it is or even if I ever knew it! Many of the folks in the high-voltage shops were veterans of the Vietnam War. Earl retired two-and-a-half decades ago, taking a buyout (and buying what he described as a “working man’s car”) when the nation went through the shared sacrifice of base realignment and closure (BRAC) process.

And so you dedicated this chapter to Earl because ...

It’s entirely possible and reasonable (to assume) that without that rotation through the high-voltage shop and the growth and contribution to my career as a GS-850 electrical of both Earl and many in those shops, I would not have known how to approach and ultimately resolve the tripping problems we experienced with that switching station during the period of recurring outages in the 2004 or so time frame at the NAS Corpus Christi.

Further …

I plan to make my dedication of the book to the high-voltage electricians in the department I was sent to as one of my internship rotations. Coincidently, many of the people in that shop or department were retired military; several were veterans of the Vietnam War.

The dedication of the folks in that high-voltage shop to their jobs was inspiring, and what I learned in that rotation, combined with my power systems courses (including protective relaying), led to a quick resolve of what was causing the frequent base-wide outages. It’s important to know that the system that was in place was an aging primary distribution system, and groundwater rise (or saltwater intrusion from the ocean over the decades) led to splicing between cables in those utility manholes failing. Before someone changed that protective relay setting, the failures only took out a single feeder. Due to the switching arrangements on the base, outages could be restored via an alternate power routing while the splice repairs were made. The changed setting caused the entire base to go dark, preventing an alternate power routing.

However, as the idea of the book evolved, there were other issues, and the book expanded to what is represented in my current Kickstarter campaign. I appreciate your comments. Perhaps (and hopefully) you feel strongly enough about my efforts to share the Kickstarter campaign on your social media sites.

Note: the Vietnam War has long since ended and friendly relations exist between the US and Vietnam. The mentions about the Vietnam War veterans are not meant to be about that war at all, but rather, it is about honoring some of the people I worked with who contributed to my career growth, people who just happened to be in that particular war.

XXXXX, my once dear friend, if you had not suggested I ask that supervisor why he threw punches at me, the efforts to write this book might never have been undertaken!