Michael Berry:  

Well, here I am at 72 standing in front of our Engine-71. I was doing a truck check making sure all equipment is on board and the truck is ready for deployment. Funny, I wanted to be a fireman when I was seven but had to wait until I was seventy to realize it. I've done a lot since those days at Manual. I left Denver with my father right after the graduation ceremony to live with him in Oklahoma near Liberal KS. Everyone knows, or maybe they didn't, that I was a licenced private pilot during my senior year at Manual, likely the only one in the entire school or likely within DPS... Nobody, except a few, ever knew... I have done things that people said I couldn't or would never be able to do. It has been amazing because the things I wanted to accomplish were hard to realize. I just never gave up and pressed on! I have been around the world courtesy of the U.S. Army. Europe, Vietnam and stateside. But, before that, I was building airplanes for Beech Aircraft out in Liberal Kans for late '67-'69. Then Boulder CO for early part of '69 at Beech. Aviation and everything about it was a passion for me. Nearly drafted, I went into the Army to become a Helicopter Pilot. They moved me into the Combat Engineers and never saw Ft Rucker AL or the choppers. I rode in them a lot but even after passing all the tests and requirements I never did get to their pilot program. Gladly got out of the Army in '72 and went to work for the Bureau of Reclamation out at the Federal Center on 6th Ave as a Soils Analyst '72-'74. Got all my FAA Pilot ratings; instrument, multi-engine, and commercial. Plus, I attended Emily Griffith and earned my FAA Airframe and Powerplant mechanic licences and that took almost two years of night classes finally finishing the summer of 1974. Many didn't know that I had already earned a private pilot licence while a Senior at Manual. Was picked up by the Federal Aviation Administration in late '74 for Air Traffic Controller job in Albuquerque NM. I have been in NM for the past 43 (2017) years. I retired from the FAA in 2006. While I was working for the FAA I managed to graduate from the University of New Mexico in 1980 with a degree in Computer Science. At Manual I was terrible at algebra. Computer Science was all mathematics through Calculus III, Differential Equations, Combinatorics, all used in the development of algorithms. I have flown three military aircraft; A-7's out of Davis Monthan AFB AZ, T-38's and F-15's out of Holloman AFB NM. After 36 years with the FAA I went to work for the BNSF Railroad as a Conductor in 2006 and I am currently waiting for an Engineer class to start next year. It started and I was successful in completing training and am a Engineer on trains between Denver, Sterling, and McCook Neb. I've got my little two acre irrigated farm complete with two tractors, motorcycles, 1-ton dually and Dodge Challenger. So, after I retire from the railroad in a couple of years I can sincerely say; "Been there, done that!" But, I’m not done yet! And, after waiting a couple of years I finally was promoted to Engineer on the BNSF and as fate would have it I was running trains out of Denver at 31st. I had an apartment in the same building where Ben Sawamura is still at 19th and Larimer. At age 62 I was the oldest person ever promoted to Engineer. I ran trains to Sterling parallel to I-76 and to McCook NE. ...Expand for more