Darrel's Domain
I was born in 1957 in the rural upstate New York town of Cuba. I am the oldest of four brothers. We grew up on a farm about midway between the towns of Cuba and Rushford. My father was a truck driver and my mother was a housewife.
Growing up on a farm, we had lots of animals. My parents raised black angus cattle for a few years and we had a barn full of cows and calves. We also had a horse most of the time; sometimes two. Of course, there were the chickens too, for eggs and meat. After the angus left, we had sheep and pigs. All of the brothers and myself earned money during the summer by helping the neighbors with hay.
I went to school in Rushford for the first two years of school and then attended St. Joseph's in Olean from second grade to fifth grade. Mom had to drive us quite a ways to catch the bus to ride to Olean (22 miles from home) and then come pick us up when the bus dropped us off. I don't seem to remember it being a big deal, but now that I am a parent, I know the planning that must have gone into her day to make all the ends meet.
From sixth grade to high school graduation, I attended school in Rushford again. I joined the band and learned to play trumpet. About midway through high school, I was invited to join the Rushford Town Band. This was a truly ageless group, with kids from 16 to 86 playing together. Music was truly the great equalizer in the town of Rushford. Everyone, regardless if they liked to sing or play or not, knew how to read music because of the great music teacher we had in school (Mrs. Wilda Williams). Every Saturday night during the summer, the Town Band would give a concert and we always had a large turnout. The highlight of the season was playing during the Labor Day festivities in Rushford. We would start the day by either riding the horse drawn band wagon or marching in the parade. We would then end the evening with a concert.
During my senior year in high school, I enlisted in the U.S. Navy. After my graduation summer doing hay for the neighbor, I went to boot camp in September 1975. After graduation from boot camp, I was trained as an electricians mate and entered the pipeline for nuclear power training. I completed nuclear training in July of 1977 and qualified as a nuclear electrical operator. During my nuclear training, I applied for and was accepted for an NROTC scholarship. In August 1977, I reported to the University of Rochester NROTC unit and entered the Naval Reserves for the next four years.
In 1981, I graduated from University of Rochester with a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering and received my commission as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy. I went immediately back to the nuclear training unit that I had come from in 1977 and qualified as an Engineering Officer in December 1981. I then reported to Submarine School in New London, Connecticut. After four months of school, I reported aboard USS Will Rogers (SSBN 659 Gold Crew) as the Interior Communications Officer. We were forward deployed out of Holy Lock, Scotland. After three strategic deterrent patrols, during which time I was also assigned the position of Reactor Controls Officer, we brought the ship back to the US for a refueling overhaul. I spent the fall of 1983 through the summer of 1985 as the combined (Blue) crew Reactor Controls Officer during the overhaul in Newport News, Virginia. I resigned my commission in May 1985.
Above Left - Gold Crew taking USS Will Rogers (SSBN 659) into the Royal Navy Submarine Base at Faslane, Scotland in the spring of 1983. I was the JOOD and am on the port side of the bridge. Also on the bridge are Dev Woolwine (OOD) and Pete Dolan (CO) standing between the scopes next to the RN pilot. Port lookout is Chris Grengs. Starboard lookouts are Roland Mailhot and F. J. Rowe.
I joined Westinghouse Electric Corporation as a Nuclear Operations Instructor at the training center in Zion, Illinois. This lasted until October 1986 when Westinghouse had a reduction in force. During this period, I married. In October, 1986, I began working for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as an operator licensing examiner. I was with the USNRC until December of 1991. During that time, I had two children - Deanna and Jared. In January 1992, I went to work for one of my old comrades from Westinghouse at a small contracting firm named Richardson-Estes. I did a variety of jobs there, including pre-screening of license candidates for nuclear operator licenses, procedure writing for regulatory compliance, and software development. During that period, my third child, Deidre, was born.
In 1996, Richardson-Estes broke up and I did contract work until I was employed by Commonwealth Edison as a Training Administrator at the Zion Station Training Center. I held this position for two years until the plant closed in 1998. I then joined the MIS departement at ACNielsen as a business analyst. During this period, I performed a variety of duties, including standard business systems analysis, Support Services Manager and Software Testing Manager. In January of 2003, I joined Compuware as a Software Quality Assurance Specialist, where I am today. I divorced in 2003 and remarried in 2006.
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