The Best Job I’ll Ever Have
After my retirement ceremony from the U.S. Coast Guard, I walked from the hotel back to my apartment in Portsmouth, Virginia feeling a little sorry for myself. I’ve always been one of those ‘excited by change’ types but something was nagging at me. I couldn’t get this thought out of my head; ‘That was it. That was the best job I’ll ever have.’
Of course, it is impossible to deny that working in search and rescue isn’t the coolest job anyone has ever had, but these last nine years here at Lifesaving Systems, on balance, have been the best working years of my life. I’ve been part of designing and building innovative rescue equipment, I’ve met a world full of heroes out there still doing the job, and I’ve been able to do what I love doing most; building and leading a great team to serve a noble purpose.
Together we’ve made a dozen innovative new lifesaving products. We’ve manufactured hundreds of thousands of parts to be used on life support equipment around the world. We’ve shipped literally tons of field-proven tough-as-nails rescue products that the U.S. Military has used for decades to save lives. And, we have improved and manufactured thousands of that old faithful cornerstone part of helicopter hoists everywhere, the D-Lok. Something we’ve built here is out in the world, every hour of every day, saving a life. Of course I’ve loved this job. And now, writing this letter, that feeling of leaving something great behind is back.
Regrettably, for urgent family and personal reasons, I must retire again – much earlier than I expected. Life has thrown some challenges my way and the demands for my time in the coming weeks and months will make full commitment to my duties at Lifesaving Systems impossible. It’s time for me to take the advice I’ve always passed to my crew; that the work we do here is incredibly important, but it’s not the most important thing in our lives; that spot is reserved for our family. My last full-time day with Lifesaving Systems is today.
The leadership at Signia Aerospace has asked me to stay on as an advisor at large and I can’t thank them enough for making that possible. Their understanding and support has been unwavering. We have been working together over the past six weeks to prepare for this change and I’ll be advising on product and technical decisions going forward and be available to support the Lifesaving Systems mission in any way that I can and I am grateful.
To my team in Apollo Beach, thank you for everything. Remember, no matter what you were before you are lifesavers now. And, sincerely, to those of you who are longstanding personal friends of mine, thank you for your belief, support, and advice over the years. You know who you are and for sure, I do. You have my number.
As to the day-to-day execution of manufacturing the world’s toughest rescue and survival products, I feel exactly the same way now as I did all those years ago when I left the Coast Guard. I’m leaving the best job I’ll ever have in some very capable hands.