This is me – I think in 1975 – on the USS Okinawa – before or after April 1975 – when my ship was involved in Operation Eagle Pull, the evacuation of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of Saigon, Vietnam.

I was a DINFOS trained print and broadcast Journalist. PO3. I had my 35mm film developed whenever my meager “poor sailor” wages allowed.

Post-Navy, “Aprils” took on new meanings due to the annual NSPI Conferences and the birthday of my key mentor, Geary A. Rummler, PhD.

I started attending NSPI conferences in 1980 (mostly in April, sometimes in March) where I met Dr. Rummler, after having been taught “a derivative of a derivative” of his approach to Instruction Analysis starting on day 1 in my first job out of college, in August 1979.

The people I went to work for – new themselves to my post-college employer – had learned these things from Geary Rummler, Tom Gilbert, Bob Mager, and Joe Harless in the 1970s while at Blue Cross Blue Shield in Detroit where they had both worked with Geary’s brother, Rick.

Our small, 10-person Training Services function at Wickes Lumber in Saginaw Michigan, had Geary Rummler’s brother-in-law on our staff, and someone else named Guy – making me “Guy 2.”

And it was in April of 1981 that I was hired onto the staff at Motorola – when my wife got transferred from Saginaw to Chicago. And it was at Motorola that I worked directly with Geary and learned from him – after indirectly via what my peers taught me and the many materials from Praxis and others’ workshop materials that they had and turned over to me.

Anyway – April often Triggers me – into major reflection on my journey. And with Rummler’s birthday coming up – April 16 – I find myself often drifting off in reflective thoughts about how damn lucky I have been.

When the pandemic started I started a Video Vanity project – and tried to capture my journey. The first of many videos follow. Yikes! There are 19 in total.

This video – recorded in April 2020 – is 65:27 minutes in length.

The rest are here – just in case you have a case of insomnia you need to cure.

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