John Long:  

I knocked around a bit after High School. Raced dirt bikes for a few years, surfed, and generally goofed off doing crummy jobs. i wound up getting an associates degree from OCC and left Southern California in 1975. I began working for the Harris Corporation in Melbourne Florida and made some major life changes. I spent two years in Nigeria operating an Intellsat system for the Nigerian government while working for Harris international satellite communications division, came home and got married, then spent a year in Saudi Arabia doing the same kind of work. Got my degree in Satellite System Engineering from Florida State through their cooperative education program while at Harris Corp. In 1984 I left Harris and went to work for the US Army at the Communications and Electronics Test Board at Ft Gordon, GA. As the satellite comms expert I did a lot of work with our sister organization, the Airborne and Special Operations Test Board at Ft Bragg, NC. In 1988 I was transfered to the Operational Test and Evaluation Agency in Washington DC under the US Army Chief of Staff and so began a very challenging but interesting career as the Airborne and Special Operations Evaluator for the US Army. I got to go places that most people never go, and see and do things that most people never get to to see or do, it was great and I loved it.I tested and evaluated eve...Expand for more