God bless George Bush and the United States of America!

Welcome to my home page.

CIVILIAN EXPERIENCE

• Currently retired and living the life of an itinerant wizard. Click here to read about my journey to Middle Earth.

• 7/00 - 5/02 - Instructor in computer science at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, at the Perkinston, Mississippi, Campus. Click here for my educational philosophy
• 01/95 - 12/99 - Retired as Senior Engineer at Lockheed Martin Michoud Space Systems, responsible for verification of laser, process and radiological safety at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana.
• Designated instructor for radiological safety course required by LAC 33:XV.575.

• 01/93 - 09/94 - Senior Engineer at Lockheed Martin Energy Systems in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. (Active "L" Clearance)
• Reviewed engineering transmittals for design, construction and modification of radiological facilities at the Oak Ridge K-25 Plant.
• Advised and assisted Central Engineering and other agencies to assure adherence to safety requirements.
• Developed and implemented oversight plans for all subcontractor work at the K-25 Plant and surrounding leased facilities.
• Developed statistical methods for demonstrating criticality safety of radiological facilities.
• Supervised other safety personnel in the performance of the above duties.

• 09/78 - 12/92 - Senior Engineer for Lockheed Martin Michoud Space Systems
• Performed and supervised safety analyses and studies for design, construction, modification and recertification of the Space Shuttle External Tank.
• Developed computer-related technologies for automated safety analyses and hazard investigation.
• Developed and implemented the PHAROS program for analyses of space hardware systems and the automated MORT program for accident investigation and analysis.
• Participated in preparation of proposals for new initiatives and facilities operations at various NASA sites.
• Directed safety program development and safety analyses of advanced programs studies including the Aft Cargo Carrier, International Space Station, and Liquid Rocket Booster.

MILITARY EXPERIENCE - U.S. Army Officer, Active Duty (DOD TS Clearance) - 08/62 - 02/78

• Assistant Chief, Maintenance Engineering Division, U.S. Army Aviation Systems Command, St. Louis, MO
• Executive Officer for Research, Development and Engineering, U.S. Army Aviation Systems Command, St. Louis, MO
• Post Engineer, cities of Dalat and Pleiku, US Army Engineer District, Vietnam
• Executive Officer, 577th Engineer Battalion (Combat), Dalat, Vietnam
• Company Commander, 509th Engineer Company (Portable Bridge), Vietnam
• Adjutant, 937th Engineer Group (Combat), Pleiku, Vietnam
• Headquarters Commandant, 815th Engineer Battalion, Fort Belvoir, VA, and Pleiku, Vietnam
• Instructor, Combat Engineering and Float Bridge Construction, US Army Engineer School
• Instructor, Atomic Demolition Munitions, US Army Engineer School
• Platoon Leader, 600th Engineer Company (Field Maintenance), Sam Song Ni, Korea

LICENSES & CERTIFICATES

• Louisiana Certified Industrial Radiographer EXCD 3, #297
• Certified Manager #05690
• Professional Engineer (Safety) in Massachusetts #37623
• Certified Safety Professional #11243
• Private Pilot, Instrument Airplane #2194853
• General Radiotelephone Operator w/Ship Radar Endorsement #PG-8-15172

EDUCATION

• Tulane University, New Orleans, LA August 1981-June 1983 - 15 hours toward Ph.D. in Computer Science
• U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, 1970
• Loyola University, New Orleans, LA, B.S., Physics 1962

TRAINING

• Pelissippi Community College Small Business Seminar 1994
• OSHA Program Management workshop, 1994
• Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response 1993
• NASA Certified Safety Professional Workshop 1992
• Army Institute for Professional Development, U.S. Army Signal Officer Advanced Course, Nonresident, Newport News, VA 1984
• U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Nonresident/ Resident, Ft. Leavenworth, KS, 1977
• U.S. Air Cmd and Staff College, Nonresident, Little Rock AFB, AR, 1976
• U.S. Army Command Management School, Ft. Belvoir, VA 1966
• U.S. Army Engineer Officer Career Course, Ft. Belvoir, VA 1966
• U.S. Army Instructor Training Course, Ft. Belvoir, VA 1964
• U.S. Army Atomic Demolition Officer Course, Ft. Belvoir, VA 1962

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Received President's Award for development of statistical method for demonstrating criticality safety of radiological facilities at the U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Sites.
• Cited by NASA for participation in the Lightweight Tank development program and External Tank Recertification.
• Tied for first place in the 1984 System Safety Society author competition for analysis of International Space Station Safe Haven requirements.
• Received six Martin Marietta Manned Space Systems achievement awards.
• Technical Author Award from Martin Marietta Manned Space Systems, 1984
• Supervised the communications logistical planning for Army theater support of operations in Southwest Asia (Desert Shield and Desert Storm).
• Planned and coordinated the first nationwide teletype network for the 377th Theater Army Area Command.
• Army decorations include Meritorious Service Medal (2), Bronze Star Medal (2), Meritorious Unit Commendation (3) and campaign stars for 6 Vietnam campaigns.

ACTIVITIES

• Retired Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army Reserve
• Former Instructor in System Safety (evening division), Delgado College, New Orleans, LA
• Former Instructor in Computer Science (evening division), Tulane University, New Orleans extension
• Expert Programmer on Macintosh series computers
• Familiar with Intel-based personal computers, Microsoft Windows, and Microsoft Office programs
• Qualified Army parachutist

PERSONAL STUFF

• I live in the best place in the whole wide world! Take a look.
• In his book "Date...or Soul Mate? How to Know if Someone is Worth Pursuing in Two Dates or Less," Dr. Neil Clark Warren suggests a criteria of ten "must haves" and ten "can't stands" for evaluating compatibility with a prospective partner. I combined mine into a little song: "I'm a Sucker for a Girl Like That!"
• Then I took one of his "personality profile" tests. You know, the kind where they ask you a whole bunch of questions and then tell you about yourself. It sounded like Gilbert and Sullivan to me. It described me as a retired intellectual.
• At the end of the test, there was a list of questions that other people who might be interested could ask to find out more about me. I figured I'd save them some time. What the heck? I'm a pretty open kind of guy. You can't bear witness under a bushel!
• I'm an avid science fiction fan (as if you couldn't guess) I'm not necessarily a Star Trek fan, but that seems to be the baseline for sci-fi nowadays, and the graphics are readily available on the Internet.
• My real interest in The Lord of the Rings. Click here to see my vacation pictures in Middle Earth
• Member, The Planetary Society
• Member, National Space Society
• Member, The HTML Writers' Guild
• Active member of St. Paul's Catholic Church, Pass Christian, MS (Actually, I combine this with the science fiction thing at the COASTCONs in the alter ego of Chaplain (Captain) David Hardy, Imperial Space Naval Reserve, a character in "The Mote in God's Eye" and "The Gripping Hand" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle). You might find my sermons and lectures interesting.
  • Sermons (They share a secret. Can you find it?)
    • Why? Comments on Columbine (John 13:34)
    • Sex It's how we resemble God (Mark 10:7-12)
    • It wasn't fair! The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32)
    • Slavery The True Evils of Slavery (Matthew 18:23-34)
    • Because He Was a Good Neighbor: The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)
    • Holy Mary, Mother of God: The Catholic Concept of Mary (Luke 1:26-55)
    • A Loving Benediction Why All Dogs Don't Go to Heaven (I Cor 15:13-20)
    • The Captain is God: The Meaning of Divine Providence (Matthew 8:5-10, Luke 7:1-9)
    • I once met a man who came back from the dead! The Meaning of Adversity (Luke 16:19-31)
    • As every successful wine maker knows: The Parable of the Workers in the Vinyard (Matthew 20:1-16)
    • Not Even The Greatest Angel, In All His Glory, Can Say That! Comments on the Christmas Story (John 1:1-14)
    • The Wisdom To Know The Difference: The difference between Caesar and God (Luke 20:20-26, Mark 12:13-17)
  • Lectures
    • Baby Fae
    • Aliens on Earth
    • God and the Cockroach
    • The Letters of Timothy
    • Comments on The Bible
    • A Monument to Silliness
    • An Alternative to Abortion
    • The Moral Implications of War
    • The Elephant in the War Room
    • Some Comments on Stewardship
    • Judges Rule Siamese Twins Can Be Separated
    • The Catholic Church Teaching on Conscientious Objectors
    • The Argument Against Compulsory Prayer in Public Schools
    • The Long Beach School Board policy on substance abuse testing
  • ...And other ramblings:
    • Big Lies
    • About Me
    • Memories of My Dad
    • A Poem for My Dentist
    • A Tribute to Grace Hopper
    • Professionals vs. Managers
    • Send a sorry Democrat to Canada
    • I'm a Sucker for a Girl Like That!
    • How Does One "Boycott" a Stamp?
    • Balls for Bush (A reply to the RNC)
    • Hazard Prioritization (VERY stuffy!)
    • The Catechism of the Catholic Church
    • An Outdated List of HTML Resources
    • My Neighborhood and Welcome To It!
    • The Very Model Parent (Namely, me!)
    • A Letter About Military Death Benefits
    • My "Profile" (Click here to verify the meter.)
    • The Y2K Problem and How to Avoid the Draft
    • How to Become Richer than Bill Gates (It isn't easy!)
    • "The Tanker" (a tribute to Gordon Duncan, USANG)
    • Part Criticality By the Numbers (VERY, VERY stuffy!)
    • A Refutation of "The Five Deadly Myths About the Military"
    • My Educational Philosophy (which is why I'm not a teacher.)
    • The Management Oversight and Risk Tree, MORT (Also VERY stuffy)
    • Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Tuesday, May 18, 2004 (used with permission)
    • "Unloading Crew" (or, "Why I didn't take up science fiction writing as a career")
    • Grandma and the Space Program (or, "The (Apparent) Conflict Between Religion and Science")
    • A comparison of the Concept of Running Totals and Weighted Totals for Detection of Trends as Applied to Statistical Data (Even the title puts people to sleep!)

I am The Very Model of Enlightened Single Parenthood. These are my children. Click on the little picture to see the full-sized one.

Melanie has finished her enlistment in the US Air Force and is now living in Texas.	Stefanie works at a beauty salon in Knoxville, Tennessee	David works for Bayview Furniture Company in Long Beach.	Aaron is an assistant deli manager in Knoxville, Tennessee.

A couple of my buddies in the space business sent me the link to this photo. The image is a panoramic view of the world from the new space station, taken on a perfect night with no obscuring atmospheric conditions. It is a composite night photo with the lights clearly indicating the populated areas.

You can download the actual picture, which is almost 3 feet wide, by clicking on the photo below, and then scroll east-west and north-south. Note that Canada's population is almost exclusively along the U.S. border. Moving east to Europe, there is a high population concentration along the Mediterranean Coast. It's easy to spot London, Paris, Stockholm and Vienna. Check out the development of Israel compared to the rest of the Arab countries. Note the Nile River and the rest of the "Dark Continent." After the Nile, the lights don't come on again until Johannesburg.

Note the Australian Outback and the Trans-Siberian Rail Route. Moving east, the most striking observation is the difference between North and South Korea. Compare both to the density of Japan.

It takes a little while to down load but it is worth it....

This is our beach at Long Beach, Mississippi. Isn't it beautiful?

Talking about beautiful, a friend from Russia sent me a link to some absolutely gorgeous Russian landscapes. They are BREATHTAKING! To see them, go to http://papers.same.ru/nature/0001.shtml for the first one, and then click on the little numbers on the bottom to see the others. Click on the little pictures to see full sized ones. You can use them as wallpaper on your computer. How spacious is their country!

Does your second grader know more about HTML than you do? Would you like to be able to make your own HTML documents? Start with "Second Grade HTML" by clicking here.

What happens when stupid people with authority over children get scared? Read the Long Beach School Board policy on substance abuse testing

My father died recently. He didn't want any memorial service, but I thought these words were appropriate.

Click here to go to Rodney Safetyfield's Home Page If you are in the safety business here's your chance to get some respect.

Here is the text of my Internet presentation on laser safety. It is the text for a one-day class I taught at Lockheed Martin.

The Management Oversight and Risk Tree (MORT) method of analysis has gone out of favor somewhat since the Department of Energy reduced funding for it. Here is a text of a presentation I gave at the System Safety Society Convention in 1997 on the use of MORT to analyze a potentially unsafe condition. You can look at the chart without the text by clicking here. (Be careful, the chart is 674,742 bytes! It may take a long time to download)

NASA's method of communication of hazard information between the rocket scientists and their managers isn't very good, as indicated by the two space shuttle disasters. Here is my attempt to fix it. Their definition and determination of part criticality isn't much better. Here are my thoughts on the subject. Finally, this is what the real problem is. Feel free to comment.

Would you like to know what the Catholic Church believes? It's all in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Click here for the introduction and then, if you're still interested, download the file from there.

Click here to find out what the teaching of the Catholic Church really is about conscientious objectors and here about the Elephant in the war room.

There is so much talk about Islam these days, and most of it comes from people who have no idea what they're talking about. If you are interested in what the Koran (Al Quran) says about things, you can read an English translation by Dr. Rashad Khalifa, Ph.D., here.

And for those who want to read the Revised Standard Version of the King James Bible (RSV), you can find a good source here.

Have you ever had questions about the meaning of adversity? The answer is here! (Please read it before you form a judgment.)

Why did Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walk into their high school and kill 13 fellow students and a teacher? This is why

It has always intrigued me that the Christmas season is so much more popular than any other religious holiday. This is what I think the reason is.

Here are my thoughts on prayer in public schools.

What are the moral principles involved when two conjoined twins share one heart? Click here to find out.

Here is a little story about God and the Cockroach.

Finally, I owe a great debt to my mentor, Mr. Earl McNail, for whom I was privileged to work for about ten years. This is my attempt to repay it.