SR71 Job Ending

The honeymoon was over, Jan and I had seen the elephant!
We arrived back in California in early February 1990 after spending a little over four years on Okinawa.  We enjoyed every moment of our time there and had four of our six children come to visit while we were there.  The offer was open to all six of them but only four accepted.
Once back in Marysville I took a little vacation time to sort out my options now that the SR71 program was coming to an end.  The choices were to go back to Deer Park or to be reassigned to the B1B/ALQ-161 program at Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB).  AIL had been testing the system for some time and since the assignment was in California and closer to our children, we decided that EAFB would be the best choice.  Except for Mike Fierro, the Beale SR71 AIL site manager, all the field people on the SR71 program opted to work at EAFB.  Mike retired and remained in Yuba City in northern California.
Thinking I would be in California for the rest of my career at AIL, Jan and I purchased a home in California City, a small town north of EAFB.  Our furniture arrived from Okinawa and we settled in.  Joe Casalaspro, the last 1912 program manager told me that because the AF canceled the program before the end of the contract, the AF would reimburse our moving expenses.  Jan had kept all the receipts including mailed package receipts and all the expenses were covered.
The jobs we were assigned to at EAFB were in the analysis and maintenance areas of the ALQ-161 testing.  The overall staffing on the program in the field consisted of a large contingent of Job Shoppers hired from the local area and AIL employees.  As we became more familiar with the operation it became apparent that the Shoppers were getting a base pay that was a lot greater than the AIL employees, but they did not get the benefits, medical, 401k etc.
After a few months the ex-SR71ers got together at a barbeque at Tom Brown’s house in Lancaster and compared notes on our short time on the B1B program.  It was our collective opinion that the program was being run completely different than the SR-71 program.  As for the analytical area, where a couple of us were assigned, it seemed strange that there was very little Air Force involvement in the process.  AIL was doing both the testing and analysis of the test results. and it was not surprising that the reports were a lot more positive than critical.  However, several of us involved in the analysis thought that whenever the test did not shed a positive light on the effectiveness of the ALQ-161 the excuse would be that the data was corrupted by some ‘unscheduled emitter’ contaminating the data and that part of the data would be thrown out.  I termed it as a scam.  On the SR71 program the ELINT analysis was being performed by knowledgeable Air Force analysts and was more objective testing of the system.  However, we kept working on the program, while muttering to each other that the operation would not bode well for the future of AIL.
Meanwhile the 1912 program office was in the process of closing out the program, getting rid of all the associated equipment and archiving what it could.  Joe Casalaspro was still the program manager and I was asked to attempt to inventory what was left of the ELINT processing at Beale.  I did a tour of the Beale and listed what remained.  About the same time PRIMES at Eglin AFB had requested that it be the recipient of all the remaining parts of the ELINT equipment from the SR71.  I was volunteered to go to Eglin to assist in identifying the parts.  Eglin was overwhelmed with many semi-truck loads of pieces parts that kept arriving daily.  I was asked by AIL and the head of PRIMES, Dave Schoch (sp?), to set up the field shop equipment and the ELINT system in a small spare lab and screen room they had available.  I requested that several others from Edwards be sent out to facilitate the operation.  John Gianese, Stan Grzyebk and Greg Novak spent some time getting the operation set up.
Eglin had several AF groups interested in possibly installing the ELINT equipment on an AF135 aircraft.  I did several briefings for Eglin to groups that toured the equipment that was set up and running.  For a demo we would open the screen room door and pick up radar signals from whatever was transmitting on the base at the time.  It was an impressive demo, but nothing ever came of it.  Also, some of the jamming equipment was set up in an adjacent lab with two tech reps from the ECM manufacturer.  I spent about 6 months total at Eglin but in the end the result was boxes and boxes of spare parts filling buildings in various locations on Eglin.
I went back to Edwards and continued to work on the B1B analysis.  The program seemed to be getting a little tight with money and people were being laid off.  It soon became apparent that very few of the job shoppers were being let go but rather regular AIL employees were losing their jobs.  Some of the first to go were several of the ex SR71 field people that had 20 or more years with the company and a vast knowledge of testing and working relationships with the Air Force.
I could see the ‘writing on the wall’ for me and composed a letter to Jim Smith the AIL President, laying out my feelings that the operation and that how it was being conducted at Edwards was going to be the downfall of AIL.  I also noted that the retaining of job shoppers over dedicated and knowledgeable AIL veterans was not in the best interest of AIL.  I did get a letter from Jim Smith and shortly after was also terminated.  I thought it was a sad ending to a 34+ year career with what I considered a premier company in the electronics field that had superior management running the SR71 program and was ultimately ‘done in’ by the west coast management of the B1B program.  Was this just ‘sour grapes”?  I don’t think so.  It was a collective opinion of most of the ex SR71 personnel working at Edwards.
So, there I was in Jan 1992, out of work.  I had bought a house near Edwards in late Feb 1990 thinking that the job would last for a while.  With the new house and not thinking I was ready for retirement and probably not able to afford it I sent out quite a few resumes to companies listed in the ‘Old Crow’ magazine.
I got one response from a program manager at E-Systems, Melpar in Falls Church, Va.  He called me around 9pm on a Friday and said he had been looking over my resume and asked it I would fly out the next week for an interview.  I said I would but that it concerned me that if I was going to be required to work until midnight on a Friday I may be reluctant to hire on. He assured me that he was at his home going over some paperwork and was getting around to some resumes for an opening he had on his staff.
I did fly out the following week and was offered a job that would require me to become liaison to evaluate Lockheed’s processing of ELINT data from the U2.  Melpar was prime and Lockheed was also a prime on the ELINT processing and Melpar was concerned about the progress of the processing for which Lockheed, Austin was responsible.  I was sent to Site 2 at Palmdale where testing was being done.  It soon became apparent to the Lockheed site manager at Palmdale that I was essentially sent to ‘spy’ on them and they became hostile and informed Austin and my access to their area became restricted.  So, I became an analyst for the Melpar system and would sit at a console during flight testing learning COMINT.  After about 6 months I was called back to Falls Church to be briefed on another program consisting of the same players, except that Melpar was prime and Lockheed was a sub.  Everything was the same except the ultimate customer and the pecking order of the contractors.
After being briefed on the program I was sent to Austin to keep an eye on the progress of the ELINT processing.  The players were the same that were involved with the testing at Palmdale but now they could not exclude me from any area or meeting concerning their part of the program.
At first Lockheed did not feel comfortable with the situation and tried to have me sent back to Falls Church.  I was perceived to be a ‘spy’ and that my only purpose was to get sufficient information so that Melpar could rebid the job and get the ELINT processing contract.  That was not the purpose but was Lockheed’s perception of it.
After about a month it became apparent to Lockheed that I did know a lot about ELINT processing and would sit with the programmers and watch the progress of the testing.  The system was very similar to the SR71, a double, dual AZ/EL interferometer system.  They were in the process of reprogramming from FORTRAN to C.  They soon discovered that I was well versed in the foreign emitter environment and I began assisting them in the analysis.  The atmosphere turned very friendly when they realized that I was very capable.  They had an excellent team of programmers and we began to work together as a team and everyone became comfortable even when I would be looking over their shoulder.
After about 6 months Melpar was satisfied with the progress and I had written several reports stating that there was no need to worry.  In fact, I thought that their ELINT processing was superior to what we had been doing on the SR71.  Their analytical tools to evaluate the processing and the ‘health’ of the system were much better as was their reporting capability.  It was a true ‘real time’ system.
I then returned to Falls Church and remained on staff until the first part of November 1993 when I became concerned that I was not near my family.  The program manager called me into his office one morning and since I had been on overhead for several months I knew it was about time they let me go.  As I sat down I said “This is going to be the easiest lay off you have ever done.  If you don’t lay me off I plan to quit and get back to my family in time for Thanksgiving”.  He was astounded and cordial and asked if I would be willing to sign a one year contract for services, if they ever needed me.  I said OK if it did not prevent me from taking another position with another company.  It would not and so I signed on and the contract kept my clearances in place.  It was a win-win situation for me.  So, I drove back to California for Thanksgiving 1993.