Technical Writing Experience

I began my work as a technical writer in March 1966 when I obtained employment with Sanders and Thomas Engineering Consultants in Pottstown, PA. My first task with this company was an assignment to Naval Air Engineering Laboratory (Shipboard Installations) (NAEL(SI)) which was located at the Philadelphia (PA) Navy Yard. In this capacity I worked with a group to develop Planned Maintenance System Maintenance Requirement Cards (PMSMRC) for use with the Short Airfield for Tactical Support (SATS). SATS consisted of a shore-based "flat-top" employed by the US Marine Corps at Chu Lai airbase in Vietnam and at several other locations and had a catapult, energy absorber (arresting gear), fresnel lens optical landing system (FLOLS), and airfield and approach lighting as well as other ancilliary equipment.
This work required close liason among the PMSMRC development group and the various equipment manufacturers, civilian and Navy engineering personnel, and military personnel at the various installations. To some degree "customized" MRC decks were required to cover the differences that developed at the various installations over time, as the SATS system underwent further development.
At the expiration of the contract for the SATS PMSMRC development group, about 30 June 1967, I was transferred to the company's Douglassville, PA office to begin working on a standardization document covering visual landing aids (VLA) standards for US Navy airfields. This document required research of existing civil and military marking and lighting standards with reference documents from US Air Force, NATO, SEATO, FAA, ICAO, as well as from other agencies. The obective of this document was to prepare a set of standards which would meet or exceed the existing standards of the referenced agencies. This work also extended to checking the existing VLA installations of several Navy airfields with recommendations for upgrading the facilities at a later date.
I also worked with VLA standards aboard carriers and non-aviation ships equipped with helicopter landing pads. In addition I wrote a purchase description for a shipboard gyro-stabilized helicopter landing aid to serve a similar function aboard non-aviation ships as the FLOLS did aboard aircraft carriers. My duties also included the preparation of an installation, operation, maintenance, and overhaul manual for the E-28 expeditionary arresting gear. This unit was deployed at airbases throughout North America and Europe to serve as an abort or overrun arresting gear.
In the early 1970s I was employed by a civil engineering company to assist in airfield design projects where my background in airfield lighting and marking standards were used in lighting installation design, obstruction determination, and design of a visual approach slope indicator system (VASI). I also performed a noise level study to be used for land acquisition at a regional airport.
Other work performed during my career included the design and documentation of early Charge Coupled Device (CCD) video cameras and memory systems during 1973 and 1974 while working at RCA in Lancaster, PA under assignment with Mikron Co. of Reading, PA. I also have been employed in electro-mechanical design and documentation of automation equipment in industries from heavy equipment fabrication to food processing.
I prepared a Good Manufacturing Practices document for a medical and surgical supplies manufacturer during the late 1980s that required working with personnel at all levels from production, shipping and receiving, quality assurance, and engineering. This task required close examination and documentation of operating procedures of all pertinent departments. Although the task was geared toward documenting the procedures for producing self-administered hypodermic pens, I aso studied and documented procedures for producing hypodermic needles and other supplies.
My work also included procedures documents for air separation plants. I also wrote software documentation for high purity gas handling equipment used by electronics manufacturers.