Dustin Crabtree:  

Life Well how do you start, high school seems so long ago. Another lifetime even what have I done and what have I become? I guess I started out like most not sure what was next. I wasn't exactly on the honor roll ! So college didn't seem like the answer, I decided that I wanted to work as a mechanic the rest of my life and live eternally with grease embedded in my fingers (brilliant). So 1 year later found me working in a tiny garage on bainbridge and making six bucks an hour(way to go kid you made the big time now!) It was around this time I realized that working on cars wasn't for me, at least not as a job. I started going over to seattle to longshore, I fell in love with the cranes, they fascinated me. That was it that was what I wanted to work on. I went in to the maintenance shop and introduced myself at one of the docks and asked if they were hiring. As it turned out they were looking for temporary help to pull new wire ropes on the cranes. They only asked me one question," Are you afraid of heights?" My reply was," I don't think so" they looked at me said," good enough" and I started working on the container cranes on the seattle waterfront, temporary never really was the job turned into a four year apprenticeship. Not long after the apprenticeship ended I was sent up to Dutch Harbor, Alaska on and off four three years, more on than off 28 of 36 months. I was the only mechanic within 2200 miles that new anything about the crane up there, so when the crane worked so did I. I spent moths straight working 110-120 hour weeks I had ships on the dock that would work 50-60 hours straight and I would have to be on site at all times. I remeber on a few occasions falling asleep next to a caterpillar 3516 diesel engine that is the size of most peoples living rooms, it was a great place to sleep for two reasons 1 I was so exausted and 2 it was the only warm place on the crane. Through all the trials of...Expand for more