Mark McDonald:  

of California observatory. After thinking long and hard for all of 2 minutes, I applied for the job and 2 months later I was living on the top of a mountian overlooking the Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bay. I work out of my house (built in 1921), set my own hours, get my own car (SUV actually), and see my boss once every couple of months. I'm a cop, a fish & game warden, a fireman, and an EMT, all rolled into one. Great sunrises, greater sunsets, and a view of the night sky that some people will never see. All in all, pretty good job. Oh yeah, and I still get to say "Press hard, three copies" as much as I want! Military Military... Boot camp in Alameda, Ca. First duty station - a ship homeported in San Francisco. Patrols in the Bearing Sea and Gulf of Alaska. Loved really rough weather, just wished I could swim! Six months later I spent six months in New York City at my rating specialty school (I became a Gunner's Mate...arrgh matey!), then was stationed aboard a cutter in Boston. More long patrols and rough weather. I was on one of the first teams to board a Russian vessel at sea when the new 200 mile fisheries limit came into effect. Saw a lot of Northeast Canada and all of the eastern seaboard. Went to Cuba, and Haiti. Drug patrols in the Carribean. From Boston I went to a cutter in Homer, Alaska. Big storms, good times. Saw a lot of the Bering Sea and made two cruises to Hawaii in a 180' boat. From there I was sent to Long Beach, Ca. where I worked as an assistant marine inspector and oil pollution investigator. After 6 months in Long Beach, my boss forced me to transfer to a sattelite office in Santa Barbara, where I spent almost 3 years. I made E-6 while in Santa Barbara, then was transferred back to San francisco for another 2 years of sea duty. Spent time in Panama and Columbia and had a blast doing drug enforcement. From there I took a shore job with a training team and travelled all over the west coast (including Alaska and Hawaii) teaching boarding procedures and law enforcement at Coast Guard stations. After that I went to the west coast training center in Petaluma, Ca. as an instructor. That's where I was when I decided to move on and do something else with my life. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED the Coast Guard. I did and saw things I never imagined myself doing or seeing. No regrets, just time to move along. Been there, done that.