by Donald K.
As a young boy during World War II, I had
a deck of playing cards with airplanes on them. My favorite was the Lockheed
Lightning P-38. It was unique because of its double fuselage. Thus, I was
extremely excited when I began employment at Lockheed in Burbank, California, in
July 1958.
I was working as a computer programmer under the supervision of Bob
Perry. My first project was to convert the fuel tank simulation program from
assembly language to FORTRAN for both commercial and military versions of the
L-188 Electra. Two years later, I transferred to General
Electric in Philadelphia to be closer to my fiancé who was in nursing school.
After working at GE for 33 years, our organization merged with Martin Marietta.
Two years later, Martin Marietta and Lockheed merged to become Lockheed Martin.
I retired from Lockheed Martin on January 31,
1997. Never in my life did I dream I would retire from the company I where I had
started my career some 38 years earlier and who manufactured my favorite
airplane some half century earlier!
