Robert Taylor:
CLASS OF 1964
Long Beach Polytechnic High SchoolClass of 1964
Long beach, CA
Robert's Story
My story is a long and twisted trail. Much to long a story to tell in detail here. I might start by saying I ended up a much different person as an adult than the one any of you might have known at Longfellow, Los Cerritos, Hughes, or Poly High. I never cared much for school, and therefore never excelled at anything. I was a boy dying to be a man, but I had to wait till that time came. My scholastic endeavors finally ceased once and for all in 1966 (I went to college for two years in San Diego). THEN,it was "Free at last" No more trying to live up parental expectations I could never attain. No more being judged and graded by teachers who were trying to cram me with irrelivant information for which I could see no future use. No more being graded on a curve. Some people are meant to be scholars, and some are not. I was not. Some can't make it in the real world once they graduate. I was screaming to finally break free and get my shot at life. I think I did OK. I lived, worked and traveled overseas for many years. I certainly had my share of hard times and regrets, but I always prevailed in the end. Here is my story.
After graduating from Poly, in 64, I went on to college in San Diego for two years. I was kicked out of college in 66. I must admit I did have a little too much fun, along with too many trips to TJ. I worked for McDonnell Douglas for a short while before I enlisted in the USAF. For all practical purposes I was reborn when I entered the service. I still consider it the smartest thing I ever did. It was my escape from all my prior shortcomings, and scholastic failures. It was starting with a clean slate. A total break from my past. I left nothing behind that might hold me back. No ex-girlfriends, no car, no job, nothing but my small family. Even that disintegrated a year later with the death of my mother, and my dad's remarriage shortly thereafter. I had no idea what the future would bring, but I was ready for it whatever my fate was to be.
First and foremost, I wanted to get as far away from CA as I could. My first choice for an overseas assignment was Vietnam. I figured that since there was a war going on over there, surely they would send me if I volunteered. My first choice of stateside duty was Florida. It was far away, and it was warm. I ended up getting the later. After completing basic training, I was sent to Amarillo AFB where I was trained to be a jet engine mechanic. Since I am an incurable "Gearhead" this was some schooling I could use, and it ended up being the foundation for the rest of my career. Upon completion of tech school, I was assigned to the 306th Bomb Wing at McCoy AFB in Orlando Fla. McCoy AFB was a SAC base, and home for a wing of B-52D's, and a double wing of KC-135A and Q tankers. During my time in the AF I spent 13 mo. TDY at U-Tapao AB Thailand, and 6 mo. at Kadena AB Okinawa. I was discharged as a SSgt in 71 at McCoy AFB. I never did get to Vietnam though the planes I worked on bombed the crap out of the place.
For any of you who are in the slightest bit interested in any of this, take a few minutes to check out these You Tube vidoes "Buff Launch" and "U-Tapao 1969." There are the actual sites of my Air Force experinence in Thailand. There is not a second of either of these home made movies I can't relate to. These are the actual aircraft I worked on, the ground equipment I used, the music we listened to, and the flightline I worked on both day and night. You can almost smell the jet fuel ! Few of you can imagine the feeling of deja vu I get when watching these films.
I had my ups and downs in the AF, but I truly loved the adventure of traveling and working overseas. I wanted more. After I was discharged in 71, I stayed in Fla. for a couple of months, and sort of decompressed. Then I was on the move again. I got a job in San Antonio TX overhauling jet engines for the TX ANG. The contract ended four months later, and I got transfered to another job working on UH-1 helicopters at Coleman Barracks near Manheim Germany. That job didn't last long, and I was soon back in the US.
I hung out for six months in Long Beach, but I was dying to get on the move again. One thing I learned during this time was that "No one needs a tail gunner, or B-52 jet mechanic after the war is over." I needed more experience. REAL BAD! Eventually I got a job as a flightline aircraft mechanic on Wake Is. A small coral atol in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I had four main goals. Get some more experience. Get my A&P License. Get a contract completion under my belt. Save some money. It was an interesting year to say the least, and I completed all my goals. When I finished my contract on Wake, I waived my right to go back to the US, and instead I traveled to Manila PI with a friend. We spent the next two months traveling from Banaue in northern Luzon, to Zamboanga in Mindinao. Quite a trip, and lots of adventures. Little did I know it was only the beginning.
From there my friend John and I traveled to Singapore, a city that was to have great significance later in my life. We slowly traveled from Singapore up the Malaysian pennsula, and into Thailand. Because of my prior experience in LOS (the Land Of Smiles), when we hit Bangkok I felt I was home. I planted my flag, and vowed to make it or break it in Thailand. I advised my friend of my plans. We had agreed from the outset that if either of us found a job, fell in love, or for any other reason did not want to continue the trip we could opt out. I exercised my option. John and I parted as friends. After around nine to ten months (and nine days before my final visa extension expired) I finally landed a job with KLM Airlines. I was their Ground Equip. Manager at Don Muang Intl. airport. The day I got that job you could not have beat the smile off my face with a stick! Unfortunately, there was a revolution in Thailand that occured only two weeks after I was hired. The new government made some political changes that resulted in my never being able to secure a work permit. I eventually had to resign from KLM nearly a year later. Man, did I hate to leave Bangkok.
Through a quirk of circumstances, I was able to get a job on a seismic survey ship (the Rob Ray I) sailing out of Singapore. So I went to sea doing seismic surveys off Vietnam, India, and Java Indonesia. Quite a change from the aviation related work I had always done before. This however turned out to be my entre' into the oil business. A turn of events that changed the rest of my life.
I only sailed on the Rob Ray I for about six months when I got a much better job as a Tech Rep for Solar Gas Turbines in Singapore. All that jet engine experience finally paid off. Solar paid pretty good, and had great benefits like company paid housing, full expense account, the works! I had arrived at last. The houses and apartments I lived in, and the life I lived during this period would make many a single man drool. I was around twenty nine by this time. For the next seven years I was based in, and worked out of Singapore. The region our office covered spanned from Japan to India, and there was very much travel and adventure involved. My job entailed working on industrial gas turbines mostly for oil ...Expand for more
companies. Power plants, pipelines, platforms, refineries, gas plants, ships. You name it we did it. What an intense learning experience that was. It was also during this period I met, and later (at the ripe old age of 34) married my wife Alison. A Singaporean Chinese woman to whom I am still married. It will be our 36th wedding anniversary in Oct 2015.
Eventually my stars realigned, and my priorities changed. Traveling away from home 200-250 days a year, and being exposed regularly to temptations I cannot describe here was getting old. OK, I admit it! Those rabald adventures never really get old, but marriage has a way of changing you. It was time to grow up and settle down. Also, being a Tech Rep. was a very hard and stressful job. It was time to move on. I resigned from Solar, and went to work for ESSO Production Malaysia Inc. An overseas affiliate of EXXON. Approximately one month after moving to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia my daughter was born. I was working on oil production platforms off the east coast of Malaysia for ESSO. There were plenty of Solar gas turbines out there to work on, so I was very busy. I fully intended to make this my final "Job Hop." Working for ESSO in Malaysia was just the change I needed from the constant and irregular travel that the tech rep job with Solar demanded. It was just what I wanted now that I was a family man. It was not to be. Six years later the Malaysian Gov't insisted our jobs be nationalized, and I was out of work again. There was an slump in the oil business at the time (1988), so we relocated to the US. Back to Long Beach CA, and my roots. My overseas career which I had loved so much had suddenly ended. Eighteen great adventure filled years that I will never ever forget. I was now 42 Y/O.
Merging into life in the US was not easy for us, and it turned out to be one of the more traumatic periods of my life. I worked on heavy equipment, and then I went to work for McDonnel-Douglas again . Just shy of a year at Douglas I got on with American Airlines as an A&P Mechanic at LAX. Things were beginning to look up, and I finally got to use that A&P License I got when I was on Wake Is. I nearly transferred to TX with AA when I got a call, and a job offer from EXXON. Decision Time. A really BIG one!
Long story short, I quit AA, and rehired with EXXON. They gave me credit for all my prior service when I worked for ESSO in Malaysia at a year and a quarter per year. An important point when your nearly forty four Y/O. So, since Dec.89 to June 2015 I worked offshore for EXXONMOBIL on the three platforms they operate off Santa Barbara County. Though I have worked on them all at one time or another, I retired as the Maintence Foreman on Hondo Platform. You can see them if you drive north up that long stretch of Hwy.101 past Santa Barbara and Goleta.
Update: Retired from ExxonMobil with a little over 33 years service on 06/30/15. Now I have to find something to do with the rest of my life.
Well, it’s Oct. 22, and I figured it’s time for another update. I took a break from Classmates for the last 5-6 years, but maybe I’ll resubscribe for a year or so. From 2015 when I retired, till Nov. 2018 I had to help my dad out. He lived to be 98. I must admit it was quite hard for me to at used to retirement, though helping my brother cope with my dad in his final years did help pass the time. On a higher note though I took that Jaguar XK I bought on 2014:on some great, and unforgettable cross country road trips. Something guys in their seventies rarely get to do. I did all those trips with a friend who drives a Porsche 911S, and I’d drive my Jaguar XK. No wives. It was sort of an “Old Man”. version of that TV show Route 66. Two old guys hitting the road in a couple of cool cars, and not a worry in the world. Then my road trip buddy went to live overseas, and suddenly I was bored again. So, what did I do? Well, the first thing I did was trade the Jag for a Range Rover, and then I got involved in a long haul trucking business for a couple of years as an Owner/Operator. Life definitely started to get interesting. Some short takes: Did I drive the trucks? No, I had drivers. Did I maintain the trucks? Yes, as much as possible. Did I gain a great respect for small businessmen, especially those in the trucking business? YES! Those small time truck owners, and cross country truck drivers are hero’s. They deserve enormous respect for what they do to make the lives we all enjoy possible. Anyway, after two years I just wasn’t making enough to make it worthwhile. After two years I sold my part of the business to my partner, and we parted as friends. Man. It sure was a relief no to have to deal with that anymore.
Then, about the time I got out of the trucking business, my Road Trip buddy returned from overseas, and he wanted to start driving around the country again. Well, I damn sure wasn’t going to go on road trips in a Range Roved, so that meant I needed another “Fun Car.” After much research, and shopping around I ended up buying a 2001 Porsche 911 Turbo from a guy in AZ. I know, that car probably has a lot more power, and goes a lot faster than a guy my age ought to be allowed to drive, but I’ve had it nearly four years now, and it hasn’t killed me yet, Anyway, after only one good trip (SoCal to Branson MO, and back), the Covid lockdown came along and really cramped our style. Then 2021 came along, and things picked up. My friend and I decided to make up for lost time,so we started the year with a short trip to Las Vegas to sort our cars our. Then we went on our most epic journey by driving all the way to West Palm Beach FL to visit an ailing veteran friend. A few months later we went on a trip north all the way to Washington and back. We racked up around eight thousand miles on those trips. Neither of our cars broke down, there were no accidents, and we broke the speed limits (by a fairly wide margin) in every state we traveled through, and neither of us got a ticket! Good times for a couple of old guys out on their own. Unfortunately, my Wingman has since gone back overseas, and my road trips have pretty much come to an end. Trust me, when you reach 77, it’s really hard to find another old guy who owns a cool car, who is still in reasonably good health, who has enough money to go on extended trips, and MOST important of all, has a wife who will let him go. But, I do have a couple of short solo trips coming up in the neat future, so I’m not totally grounded. Hopefully, my wife will FINALLY retire in another year or two, and maybe we’ll take some trips together for a change. Or, maybe finally move out of CA! That would be nice.
This bio may seem long to those of you who took the time to read it, but believe me I have left out much. Also, all my life I have been a fairly avid photographer. I have thousands of photos of my travels, and adventures going back to my Air Force days. I hope to digitize more of those photos, and maybe create some more albums. Hopefully someone out there will have a question, or will just want to reconnect. Maybe a few of you have been to some of the same places, and would like to share some stories. I will look forward to hearing from any of you who want to send me a note.
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