Chapter 5

Arnold Proctor, the owner of AG Proctor Inc. (the Contractor) had a small single engine Cessna aircraft that he flew all over the country to his job sites. He flew into our local airport and I picked him up and got him checked into the motel. The next morning we went to the meeting with the CofE. The last of his 10% money of the Contract usually was the profit of the job, sometimes more and sometimes less. He wanted to collect it. At the meeting he said that the CofE had signed off on all of the work and he wanted to collect. The CofE Rep said that was correct but the Plant had said that now they wanted us to repair everything that had blown up and failed at our expense. We said that none of what we had built had caused the electrical fault. It had happened due to the Plant's maintenance crews having not turning our new emergency lighting batteries charger circuit back on when they had finished their work. The CofE Rep said that we would probably have to take the Plant to mediation or to court to get the money released. He said that there was nothing he could do about it.

As I took Arnold back to the airport he talked a lot about his options to get this settled. He said that he had a prestigious Law Firm on stand-by in Washington, DC that he had used before to get his money from the Government Contracts. He asked me if I would stay with him if he raised my salary to a monthly amount that he paid all of his Project Managers. And also to be available to go with him to Washington, DC and elsewhere I would be needed to be his advisor and "expert witness" on the electrical side of his Contracts. Well, this was a good, steady jump in pay for me, so I agreed to do this. He asked me to go to Scott Airforce Base east of St Louis near Bellville, IL where he had another Project started with the Air Force. He would pay all travel time and my expenses and it would be easier for him to fly in and out of there when he needed to take me to meetings. He said that later on if this worked out he would include some profit sharing for me. Yes, he was good at blowing smoke up my young, innocent butt and I bought this hook, line and sinker! But once again, I could see a paid vacation in front of me so I accepted his offer.

He got me cleared out IBEW's Local Union 309 as his Assistant Manager / Advisor on this jobsite. There I met "Cadillac Jack" Donovan, a very likable local Tramp Lineman. Jack got his nickname when he topped out as a Journeyman Lineman in LU 309, bought an old, long, black Cadillac and headed for the west coast. There he sold the Cadillac and found a job as a deck hand on a Tramp (of course!) Steamer. He went around the world and would get off at Ports and find work as a Lineman. While he was working in England he married and brought his bride home. He worked out of LU 309 mostly after that.

One morning when he was getting ready to go up a pole a 1-Star General came walking down the road with his entourage following him. He stopped and asked about our work. He asked Jack "What is your job and what will you do today?" Jack said "I am a Tramp Lineman named Cadillac Jack and I'm here to upgrade your power." The General said that's what he wanted to know and thanked Jack. Then Jack said "What is your job and what do you do?" All of the General's Aides that were following him blanched and looked like they were ready to lose their breakfasts. The General stated his name (I forgot it) and then he said "I am the youngest 1-Star General in the Air Force and I run this Base." Jack said "You have a pretty good job then if you don't screw it up!" Now all of the General's Aides were ready to pass out or run! The General laughed and said "I'll really try very hard not to let that happen!" Yes, Cadillac Jack was a lot of fun to be around. There never was a dull moment when you went bar hopping with Jack!

The CofE decided that the Inspector we had was ranked too high and paid too high for the size of the electrical portion of our project. So they sidelined him, still there with pay and assigned a new Engineer to be our Inspector. After the introductions, he asked what our biggest problem was. I said I was having a hard time getting an outage on the high voltage circuits that were next to our new one in the outdoor switch yard. He said he would get right on it. As he turned to go he said "By the way, what is an outage?" I knew were in trouble.

He told me he was an Electrical Engineer but he knew low voltage electronic circuitry. He had been with the Space Program but was laid off when they had a cut-back in Programs. He said that if I would give him a box filled with electronics pieces and parts he could design and build anything I wanted. I noticed him keep reaching inside his jacket to his waist and moving his hands around. I asked him what he was doing and he showed me.

Under his jacket he wore a vest. It was canvas and looked like a duck hunter type vest. I was a double layer and he had knobs mounted on the front of it. These controlled the wattage going to heating coils sewn into the vest on his kidney area, lower back and other areas. In the front where the small pockets were for putting in shotgun shells he had these filled with batteries. He said that he had to keep adjusting the temperature as it was not quite perfected yet. He said he wanted to market this when he got it perfected but I never saw any on the market later. He was a nice, likable guy so we all helped him learn about high voltage work.

The day before our scheduled outage he asked me if I had ever had any high voltage installation that I had built ever blow up when we energized it. I said "Only 1 but that's part of the game." After a while he asked me how many switch yards I had ever built. I said "If this one holds together, this will make 2." He looked like he was going to lose his lunch! He was just too easy to mess around with.

Part of this Project was to build a round water tower to serve the new housing project. This was also to be tied into the existing water line servicing their hospital. The 4-story hospital was only getting a small flow of water on the 4th Floor. We had Chicago Bridge & Iron Company (CBI) as a sub-contractor build this. When it was finished they started filling it. Before the water got up to the overflow outlet level in the new tower, water started flowing out of the existing water towers overflows.

CBI gave the CofE a price to install a large check valve in the main line going to the new tower to stop this from happening. But the CofE instead spent lots of time and money on surveyors trying to prove that our tower had been installed at the wrong elevation, which we didn't do. When we left the hospital's 4th Floor had no running water. Yes, more of our tax dollars at work!

Arnold would fly into there and pick me up for the meetings in Washington, DC. We would also visit his other 2 new Projects at the NSA in Fort Meade, MD and also another project outside of Washington in Virginia. His hired Law Firm assigned one of their upcoming rising star young Attorneys to our case that was on track to get a Partnership. I was to teach him all I could about Electrical Theory and all the equipment that was involved in the big blow up. He was extremely sharp and soaked it all in very quickly.

In some of our meetings an old original partner in the law firm would stroll in and sit down. He looked to me like he was in his 80's but maybe he was younger. He would fall asleep in his special stuffed chair and snore very loud. Everyone just ignored him and acted like this was just business as usual. When he'd wake up he would say something like "Great meeting! Everything is going like clockwork!" Then he'd walk out and not return for several days. I guess this was how he kept up his billable hours maybe?