My elder son Arlo loved both outdoor adventures and intellectual adventures.
In his 16th year he and I joined two other men for a fly-in canoeing, camping, and fishing adventure into the roadless wildness of Canada. The next summer he signed up for an Outward-Bound adventure in Colorado that focused on hiking, mountain climbing, cliff climbing and camping.
When it came time to go to college, he quickly focused on one and only one college-St. Johns in Annapolis, Maryland. Most may not have heard of this St. John’s as it is very small Liberal Arts college (freshman class about 100). However, it is the third oldest college in the USA (after Harvard and William & Mary) having been founded in 1696.
Figure 1: St. Johns College-Annapolis
The reason Arlo chose St. Johns was that it was very small and had only one curriculum-The Great Books Curriculum focused on the important ideas of Western civilization. It also attracted superior students, encouraged student discussion, and had small (about 20 students) intimate classes. The one and only degree offered was a BA in Philosophy. His mother and I thought it was an excellent choice. He spent his freshmen year there and stayed for the summer.
I got a call from Arlo. “Dad, I want to transfer to the Santa Fe, New Mexico campus of St. Johns.”
St. Johns opened a second campus in Santa Fe in 1964 to take the enrollment pressure off of Annapolis. The curriculum had become popular, and they were getting way too many qualified candidates. The same curriculum was taught in Santa Fe.
“Why do you want to transfer to Santa Fe, Arlo?” I asked.
“They have the same great curriculum there, but they also encourage a lot of outdoors activity. In particular, the on-foot portion of the New Mexico search and rescue team is run out of the college.”
Santa Fe is located at the Southern terminus of the Rocky Mountains and is at an altitude of 7,000 feet.
Figure 2: Santa Fe, New Mexico
“Yes, dad.”, he said. “I can get a great education and also get into the mountains for climbing and supporting search and rescue. I really like that idea.”
His mother and I could see no reason he couldn’t follow his dream. The tuition was the same. The issue was getting him there. We did a road trip from Virginia to Santa Fe, all four of us. It was great.
I also liked the idea of Santa Fe. I did a lot of business in Albuquerque and sometimes Los Alamos. On the freeway (I-25) the 65 miles only took about an hour. It actually took a bit longer to get to Annapolis from Northern Virginia. The trip to Los Alamos required passage through Santa Fe.
His sophomore year went well. He loved the great outdoors of New Mexico.
At the beginning of November of his Junior year, I had some business in Albuquerque. I had convinced 3 different government agencies that it would be in their mutual interest to have a program to develop and test a special type of space hardware. They were all convinced that this was a good idea, but bureaucratic prudence demanded that they have an independent technical review of the proposal.
The government brought together independent experts from the Army, Air Force, and the Tri-Service agencies. The review was to take place at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory located at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque.
`Figure 3: Air Force Weapons Laboratory
The meeting was scheduled for 10:00. I arrived at the gate at Kirtland with my compatriot Kenny from our Las Vegas office where the testing was to be done. We were the two-man briefing team. It happened to be the day of my birthday. “Gotta fly with that.”, I thought.
We got to the briefing room in short order. There was Sam representing the Army, and Jake from the Air Force. We knew them well and were sure they were on our side.
“Hey Sam. Hey Jake. How are you guys doing?”
“All is well, Ian. I see you brought your buddy Kenny from Las Vegas.”, said Sam.
“That must mean you want to do some serious testing.”, said Jake.
“Yes indeed.”, said Kenny. “Ian has laid out an end-to-end program.”
“Can’t wait to see it.” chimed in both Sam and Jake.
Out of the corner of my eye I caught a look at somebody else entering the room. “Oh, shit.”, I thought. “It is my arch-enemy Gus.”
The Tri-Services Agency used Gus as a technical consultant. He was a former staff officer in the agency. He now worked for a company that was a direct competitor to my company. We were always butting heads.
Gus laughingly said, “Hello Sam and Jake. Glad to see you again. Are you ready to roast these guys.”
Both Sam and Jake nodded deferentially to Gus.
“Well, then. Let’s get started. What do you have for us Ian?”, Gus commanded.
These were the days before laptop computers. My briefing was on viewgraphs. Kenny went and took a seat, and I walked up to the viewgraph projector and put my title viewgraph up on the machine and turned it on.
As soon as I did that, Gus started. “That is the dumbest idea I have ever heard. The data is not available to be able to perform anything like what you propose.”
I responded, “Yes, but collecting that data is the first task in this end-to-end plan.”
“Yes, Ian, but your company is not qualified enough to collect that data. There are other companies better suited for that job.”
We never got further than my title slide.
Gus announced, “The Tri-Services Agency has let a contract to capture the data needed to do the program Ian wants to do. There is no point going any further with this briefing. It needs to wait until this data has been collected and that will be about 2 years from now.”
Sam and Jake both agreed, “Come back later. Sorry.”
Gus got up and triumphantly sauntered out of the room.
The bastard was obviously talking about his own company. The government had shared our plan with him, and his company had stolen the idea and convinced somebody back at the agency he used to work for to give them a contract to gather the data. My sources in the agency later confirmed that his company had the contract.
I was devastated. Some birthday present this was. I had been working on selling this idea for almost a year. It was a five-year program and was supposed to be a major source of support for my people. Shit.
Kenny and I headed out. Kenny said, “That son-of-a-bitch has done it again. He has screwed me more than once as well. Let’s go get a drink.”
“Sorry Kenny. I don’t do that anymore. Let’s get an early lunch.”
“Sorry, I forgot. Yes, lunch.”
We went and had some lunch, and then Kenny took off. I was left alone in my misery. My management was going to chew my ass.
I had my binoculars in my briefcase. I headed to the road leading to the tramway leading up to the Sandia Mountain that towers over Albuquerque.
Figure 4: Sandia Mountain in Albuquerque
I parked, got out of my car, and wandered around the chaparral, but I just couldn't get into it. I just couldn't stop feeling sorry for myself. Even though it was a bit earlier than he and I had discussed, I decided to head to Santa Fe to see Arlo.
I got on I-25 and headed North. I was in Santa Fe in about an hour. I eased into the foothills where the college is located.
Figure 5; St, Johns college Santa Fe
I parked and headed to his dorm room, but nobody was there. I wandered around the small campus a bit hoping I would run into him or his roommate. No luck. I headed to the cafeteria. No luck.
I was feeling pretty depressed at this point. First a shit birthday present and now I can’t find Arlo. But I finally got my head out of my nether regions and headed to the administration office.
The lady at the front desk said, “Oh yes, I know where Arlo is. He and his team just got back from a search and rescue mission. They are going to have a post-mission debriefing in about 15 minutes. Let me show you to the conference room.”
She led me down the hall to a small conference room. There were seats along the wall and a small table on the other side of the room. On the other side there also was a window facing the foothills. I took a seat and waited. A few other adults joined me.
A short time later Arlo entered the room from the window side along with four other students and an older man who was obviously their leader. The look on their faces was sober.
The leader said, “The team had a very emotional day today. They are here to talk about how they are feeling. Please do not ask questions. When all have had their time, you can get together with them one-on-one.”
He continued, “The team went out early this morning in search of a man who did not return last night from climbing in the mountains. His wife called us in. The helicopter team thought they spotted him, but there was nowhere to land. The team followed instructions from the helicopter team using walky-talkies. They found the man at the bottom of a small cliff dead. They fashioned a stretcher from small trees and jackets and brought him back to town.”
Figure 6: Makeshift stretcher
Arlo was the first member of the team to speak.
He said, “I now know why I transferred to Santa Fe. I am humbled by being part of a team carrying out such important work. My heart goes out to this man’s friends and family.”
As he said this he began to cry. And I began to cry.
I was immediately out of my own woes. Mine could be fixed. This man’s couldn’t. I am off doing work that is far less important than the work Arlo is doing. It is an honor and privilege to be here.
I hardly heard the offerings of the other team members. Being self-centered again and thinking how lucky I am.
When the debriefing was over, Arlo came over and we hugged and cried again. We spent the rest of the day together in a way that felt very, very close to me.
What is important anyway?
Postscript
After a year of work, Gus’s company had made little progress with getting the important data. The government came back to me and funded my original proposal. You can read about that in the blog post named Last Tango in Nevada.
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