Today, I was upstairs cleaning up some files I keep about the stuff I have. Documents that show wiring for special gear, telephones, internet, audio, all kinds of stuff.
The wife walks in with some old papers stapled together. It was dated, May 4, 1964 and the documents stated it was for my English 4 class in High School.
I did not remember these papers but, in hindsight, I remember what happened and why maybe clearer than some other things in life.
The paper was entailed "From Darkness to Dawn" and it describes the start of World War II in Europe. I read the words. They were still meaningful to me. I was also impressed that I got a grade of 89 on the paper and 35 out of 35 for content. English was not my best course of study.
I have always sort of been a history buff. I Remember the TV series "The Silent Service" well. There were movies such as The Gallant Hours and Sink the Bismarck.
The second paper, attached to the first paper, was entitled "The Great White Light". There is no grade on this paper but there are red marks of correction. It was the story of the development of the Atomic bomb. This story starts with the following line:
"On December 2, 1942 at 3:35 PM and August 6, 1946 occurred two events with world shattering effects." (Funny thing is the year is wrong it should have been 1945 but it was not caught by the “grader”)
Followed by this line:
"On these most famous of days, energy from which the stars got their brilliance was released for the first time in the history of man."
And while this statement is not totally true (fission is not the same as fusion) I guess it's not to bad for a 17 year old still in High School in the mid sixties.
It never occurred to me, until I read these today, how the events they document influenced my life. How I ended up in the Silent Service (almost by luck based on the recruiter and the time frame) and then in Nuclear Power, controlling, with my own hands, the fission process in a nuclear power plant, underwater in a nuclear powered submarine and later in life at several “commercial” nuclear plants.
Just in case you are interested, I have attached a picture of the first page of each paper with the grading sheet for the first. I am loath to take the pages apart to scan them. So, pictures will have to do.
Again, looking back at these two documents and looking at my life in nuclear power and the Untied States Navy it is easy to see how I got there and the driving forces. We seldom get a chance to look back and see that things worked out like we wanted, whether it was known or not.
PS. It is believed that my mother kept these papers and my wife got them after my mother passed. I am glad my mother kept them. Sometimes, you need things like this to confirm that you were successful in life. Success being measured by attainting goals you established whether you remembered them or not.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this and if you got this far, thank you for reading it.
