Comments
Wow, not really sure where to begin. So much has happened in 20 years, but I’ve been prodded into posting something to the site. I don’t have a photo montage, so I’ll have to write it out. Unlike one of the photos, no glasses anymore, had my eyes lasiked and am happy to be rid of glasses. Hope you have time to read!
I went back and forth during high school between Central and Sahuaro high school in Tucson, AZ. But my interest in academia wasn’t too high back then (but I may have been…). And although I was technically “in class” for the standard 4 years I wasn’t willing to do a 5 year plan, and ended up back in Tucson and took the GED exams and passed without a problem. A boring end to the high school era, but I felt I had gotten what I should have out of high school.
After that, with no real direction, I had a real good time in Arizona living at home with mom for free, working part time and just trying to figure out what to do next. After a few years it became clear that if I didn’t get out of there I would be in trouble. Many of my friends there in Tucson were either barely getting by, or in jail by the time I was 21.
I moved back to Grand Forks where my father still lives and took a shot at UND, but still didn’t have the motivation to be successful. So two years later at 23 (living with Dad for free and having a good time at Sensations and other places), I signed my life over and joined the Army. November 23rd, 1993…I’ll never forget that date. Little did I know then, but it was going to be the one thing that changed my life forever.
After my 16 weeks of training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, I earned my spot as a Field Artillery Observer with Headquarters battery, 1/82nd Field Artillery battalion, 1st Cavalry Division in Fort Hood, TX. Where I was the guy that gets to drive an armored vehicle to a hilltop and spot targets for the gunners to shoot at (who are located 10 miles behind and fire over our heads to hit what we’re spotting). As I made my way from Private to Specialist during my time there, being a computer geek, I caught a break a year into my enlistment and was snagged by a great Sgt 1st class, and was retasked working with the brigade artillery command running their prototype artillery computers (I would think they have the bugs worked out by now).
This was the difference between sitting on a hill in the middle of the desert heat with two other guys, and being in central operations for the brigade with officers, where the porta-toilets moved when we moved, there were cooks making hot meals, and access to satellite phones and Blackhawk helicopters wherever we went. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t easy staying up for 30 hours at a time running the computers and keeping the (then new) digital networks up, but I still had it better than many of the guys. And whenever someone came looking for some enlisted to dig a hole somewhere, my E-7 boss was somehow always was there to say, um no, Carlson’s working with me. So as long as I did my job and made him look good, he made sure I didn’t peel any potatoes or dig holes.
So that’s what I did. And I left with a new outlook, and a new attitude. Not to mention a ton of fond memories of that time. From flying in the dark 15 feet off the ground, to “accidentally” making a call for fire of a dozen 155mm high explosive rounds into a herd of cattle who had wandered into the off limits firing range…and dozens of non-PC stories that I won’t mention here.
Finally my time came up in November of 1997 but I wanted to get out early to go back to school at UND, but school started in August. So I filed a request for a 3 month early release. My boss didn’t like it as we were going to deploy to the desert for a month in August and he wanted me there, but he figured I deserved it for all the work I had done for him over the last 2 years. So I officially filed it and my commander quickly rejected, I appealed to the battalion commander, and he rejected it, and finally I was sick of being told no and I told my boss I wanted to see the Division Artillery commander.
He wasn’t excited about standing before a full bird Colonel about my early release, but he got me an audience with him. So with my best pressed uniform, I went and stood before the man. I explained what my plans were and I showed him my application for release, acceptance and registration to UND and of course, the two rejections from the lower commanders. He asked only one question, and it was to my boss, Sergeant First Class Brian K Sutton. “Has Specialist Carlson been a good soldier for you and the brigade?” he asked. And my chief replied “Yes sir he has”. The commander said “Good enough for me, good luck Specialist Carlson”, and he signed my early release approved. That commander happened to be Colonel Raymond Odierno, now Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno, who is second in command in Iraq and has been nominated to take over as Commanding General, Multinational Forces Iraq when current commander Genreal David Petraeus changes to a new position or retires. I wouldn’t have even known until a few years ago, he was on NBC Nightly News for an interview and immediately recognized him. Who knew????
So that ended my term in Texas and my 3 year hitch. But I have a ton of respect for those who make it a career. It isn’t an easy life to lead and I was never deployed to a war zone or got shot at. I can’t imagine what it must be like for deployed forces now.
Following that I transferred my time to the ND National Guard, re-qualified as a Stinger missile gunner, and was activated during the 1997 flood, and spent another year with the guard until I decided it was too difficult to juggle work/school and normal life and left the guard.
When I returned to ND, I completed a semester at UND, but found their Computer Science curriculum was old and outdated. They were teaching things from 5-10 years ago, with dead computer languages, which in the computer world is a lifetime…and useless for a career future as I had no interest in being a programmer.
At the same time, the tech in EGF was just starting a brand new program on computer networking which was fully Microsoft certified, using the latest technology, and I knew this is what I was looking for.
I finished my degree in Computer Networking Technologies at the tech in May, 2000 and it was time to get out of town. There was little work for me in ND, and what work there was, paid about half of what salaries were in larger cities. So I decided to move to Washington State, as some close friends, Onder Ceyhun and Bryant Hansen had moved to some time ago.
Shortly after moving, I landed a job in the Olympia area where I spent the next 18 months learning and earning a modest living. I was working for an outsource company supporting a network Firewall with a company called WatchGuard based in Seattle. After the 18 months I had built some good relationships with people with WatchGuard and I was offered a position with them in Seattle.
This worked out well, I rented a nice place downtown, and for the next 5 years it was solid. Starting as a second level support representative, I ended up being the support engineering manager before I left. I enjoyed my time there and had some wonderful opportunities to travel, and was sent to New Delhi, India three times to train a support center there. If you ever get the chance to go, I would highly recommend it (just not in the middle of July). It turned out to be a great experience, I met a ton of great people, and the training was easy for me, as the people working for this support center were very smart and all had bachelor’s degrees in something computer related.
As for personal life during this time in Seattle, I dated a crazy girl named Piggy Thomas who was on MTV’s Road Rules Australia. She was a bit off the deep end, but we hit it off because I was one of the few who could care less that she was on MTV. She was fun to be with, but after a few years of on and off, I moved on as did she. We still keep in touch though (and she’s still crazy). After that, a friend of mine, Mike Williamson had just been hired at WatchGuard and was looking for a place in Seattle. We both liked the idea of cutting rent and utilities in half, and I already had an apartment downtown. So we became roommates I switched to a much larger apartment downtown in the same building.
Later both of us became sick of paying rent without it going anywhere except someone else’s pocket, but with the Seattle housing market as tight as it is, $160,000 would get you a 450 sq foot studio which wasn’t really desirable for either of us. I wanted a hot tub, double garage, and all that crap. So we looked south and with both of our incomes, we were able to get a nice 4 bedroom split level house in Des Moines, WA, which is about 10 miles south of downtown with an easy commute to work.
The space between Seattle and Tacoma which used to be empty land is all but developed now, and is pretty much one big city just like the suburbs of Minneapolis are. He ended up marrying a girl from Thailand (I actually told him to when I left for my last trip to India and didn't think he would...but when I got back..voila..married) who is really nice that he met in the food court across the street from WatchGuard.
We thought about parting ways but decided it was still a win/win for both of us and we remain in the house and it works out great. He and his wife get the upstairs and I get the downstairs and we kind of mingle when it comes to the kitchen (Usually it’s just me putting dishes in the sink and they somehow get washed as if by magic…) So we are all friends. His wife is always trying to set me up with one of her Thai girlfriends which can be interesting, but what can ya do.
So that continues but the job front changed about 16 months ago. WatchGuard was a good company but was having trouble keeping CEO’s and I thought they were making some bad decisions. There were a few scandals, lots of money going out the door and not enough coming in, and the final CEO sold the company out from everyone for about half it’s worth to a capital company, and it was delisted from NASDAQ. And he collected a cool million for doing this. The company is still doing fine to date as a private company and my roommate Mike is working there as manager of the international support team. But that’s when I knew it was time to move on.
My boss at WatchGuard was a guy named Jim Williams, and he had moved to another company called F5 Networks about six months earlier which has about 1500 employees while WatchGuard had only about 350, so this was a big change from what I already thought was big. Now it’s been 16 months since I made the switch and have been happy working for him with F5. And now even though the economy is “so so” at best, we’re in a good position to ride it out where we are. In a few years I’ll have the option to sell my share of our house to Mike and get a house by myself, but who knows where that will take me. I’ll likely still be with F5 as the pay and benefits are good, and I very much enjoy my work as a Network Support Engineer. So I’ll just stick with it and see where it leads.
Well that’s the outline. There’s plenty in between that I didn’t fully include, such as a marriage in Vegas when I was in the Army that lasted a little over 2 years, but then it gets even sillier. So you’re welcome to ask me about it at the reunion and I’d be happy to fill in the gaps over a drink.
Hope to see many of the people I haven’t seen in 20 years at the reunion. If anything, it will be the first time in awhile that so many friends and people I grew up with will all be at the same place and time. So I’m looking forward to it.
My direct email address is scottcarlson@realscanner.com if anyone wants to drop a line.
Best to all.
Scott
