Jim Hutton:  

After dropping out of OSCVI in 1968 I joined the navy and was trained as an electronics technician. I then spent 7 years traveling the world while maintaining naval sensors and controls systems. I later earned a high school diploma via night school and began studies toward a Electronic Technologist diploma at Nova Scotia Institute of Technology. Just before graduation I was picked by the Navy's commissioning program and was sent to study engineering at Royal Roads Military College in 1975. Upon graduation with a bachelor's degree in science in 1979 I was selected for the Navy's Post Graduate on Scholarship Program and subsequently earned a masters of science degree in Applied Physics at the University of Victoria. Following this I continued studies in engineering for another two years, at the Navy's Fleet School and the Technical University of Nova Scotia. I began my second career as a Naval Engineer when assigned to HMCS OTTAWA as the ship's Systems Engineer in 1984. I was later promoted and posted to Naval Headquarters in Ottawa, Ontario where I participated in the development of policy and standards for naval software. In 1990 I was promoted once again to the rank of Commander [Lieutenant Colonel] and posted to Victoria as the Senior Engineer for a squadron of ships. While in this position I spent time the Middle East during the 1990 Gulf War. Following this assignment I was personally selected by the project manager of the navy's $10 billion ship construction program to manage all west coast operations. In this role I was responsible for completing construction and acceptance of 5 of the Navy's 12 new state of the art ships assigned to the west coast. Following this challenging position I left the Navy in 1997 to pursue other interests. After taking certificat...Expand for more