It's all about me! (Part 2)

So it's late 1990 or early 1991, I'm stationed on the USS Chancellorsville CG-62 in beautiful San Diego, California (by the way, I'm a plankowner) and we recently returned from a 6 month cruise. In the last year, I was promoted to E-6, yes E-6 in around 4 years. In fact, I was starting to prepare for E-7 (Chief Petty Officer). Had I stayed in the Navy, I would have been promoted to E-7 in less than 8 years. Ask anyone familiar with military advancement, that's fast. During this section, please think of me as EW1 (SW) Ratcliff. I was the senior Electronic Warfare Technician on an almost brand new U.S. warship, which made me responsible for anything to do with my equipment (Remember? The equipment with terrible technical manuals). On this particular day, I'm escorting a "civilian" to inspect my equipment. I really can't remember why she was there, but we spent time talking about my tour ending and that there were opportunities for someone with my expertise outside of the Navy.

Now I was less than a year away from heading back to Pensacola and I already have my orders for instructor duty in hand, but I'm a curious kind of person so I investigated this so-called opportunity. One thing led to another and we were heading to Indiana. Yes, INDIANA! No ships and no beaches and I am no longer EW1 (SW) Ratcliff, I am a civilian for the first time in 6 years. It's a tough transition.

Luckily, I wasn't alone, there were several others with the same expertise either already in Indiana or would arrive over the next 1-2 years. Looking back, you could consider us a cross-between a dream team and a bunch of suckers. Each experienced Electronic Warfare Technician was teamed up with extremely talented engineers, our task would last several years and it would be an extreme challenge. Re-write and re-engineer all troubleshooting procedures for the system we maintained on board ship.
We played a huge role in improving the user experience for our fellow shipmates. It is truly one the most challenging and rewarding tasks I’ve ever completed.

Ok, so this little "about me" section is getting long, but I'm not a fan of extremely long posts, because you were probably bored at 1991. Good usability is about helping users absorb manageable chunks of information.

In part 3, I will transition from electronics technician to technical writer and we will head back to the great state of Texas.