by José Z.
In 1962, I was hired in San Antonio, Texas,
as a planner for Lockheed in Sunnyvale, California. Lockheed was the prime
contractor to build the Polaris, a submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) that was developed by the Navy.
The job offer was for $3.50 an hour, a dollar
an hour more than I was making! As an electronics planner, I worked with
engineers, buyers and manufacturing and quality personnel. We worked seven days
a week, 10 to 12 hours a day, for months during the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis.
Polaris-launched SLBMs would become the
third part of the nuclear triad the United States built during the Cold War—the
Polaris, the B-52 manned bomber and the Minuteman, and Titan land-based
Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs.)
I later transferred to procurement quality
assurance and participated in testing of the missile at a 5,000-acre missile
test facility near Santa Cruz, California, in the mountains high above the
valley. I later worked at Lockheed Aircraft in Burbank. I was one of several
planners loaned by Lockheed to Rockwell International to resurrect the B-1
Bomber in 1983. I was then hired by Rockwell, where I continued my Aerospace
career until my retirement in 2006.
 |
| We rose to challenges of the Cold War. |
