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I started in aerospace engineering, I'm still very much of an introverted nerd,

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but I love to build, I love to design, I love to make stuff

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except, particularly when I went in the service, and actually a little bit--. I'd already signed up

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but I'd helped several people do some stuff, and I wasn't the most brilliant student.

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Actually I was kind of a jerk my first few years at State.

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I had freedom. I was a farm boy. I'd never--. I didn't where the library was but I knew where the gym and the student union were. [laughter]

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I knew those well, but I didn't learn where the library was until my junior year.

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I'm being a bit facetious.

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So the reason I was sharing all that with you is that I had helped several people get some studies

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and somehow they were all just like, wow, okay?

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Well then when I went into service, which I was still kind of in the aerospace mode but really thinking about going to become a teacher,

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I really--. I'm almost afraid to say this on video,

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video, but I kind of got a shift from better people from better bombs, okay.

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hat I saw--. And I had a lot of people that--. I had some phenomenal officers that were over me and I mean they were incredible,

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but they were very big on me coming back and teaching.

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They knew my background

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and of course that was not what I was doing in service or anything else but I was working with these people,

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so basically there was this desire that we never make this mistake again

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and I heard that from more than one officer, and it's like, you need to go back and teach high school.

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So I already had a foot in that door before I left so when I went back I made if final,

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but I stayed in physics which has always been my first love. It was the hardest one for me. [laughter]

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I made worse grades in physics than any of the other sciences.

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It was my favorite. So it was like, okay, well you can teach school

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and then you can do your physics, so you got your science but you're still doing your teaching.

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So life kind of started there

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and it stayed on that track and every time I tried to get off the train it didn't let me,

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until about a year and a half ago when I retired.

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So that was the big change and I think the war and service and all that

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really had a big influence on my decision.