Military Intelligence got me were I am today. Well...

Punishment can Pay off...
Some people may not realize this but I came by my occupation as a punishment.
Sounds funny but it is true.
While In the service, after being reassigned (Against my will I will tell ya... That is the Punishment part... but it is a Looooong story better saved for later) to an "Office job" I encountered a defining moment in How I got to be where I am now.

When things began to change...
I walked in to "The Office" one morning and was walking down to my den in the shadowy part of the world and I heard what sounded like some one kickin' the shit out of a something pretty solid.
Me being me... I was up for givin' something a good kick myself.. So I poked my head in through one of the open offices...
I see "the Big Man" putting serious boot to a shelf that had a printer on top of it and a computer next to it. That scene, Was one of the most perfect examples of why the military is sometimes "Slow" to adopt certain technologies.
I Asked if he needed a hand...
"You know anything about this thing?"
"Well not That particular one sir... but I can take a shot at it"
He motioned at it Like "Go For it!"
So I saddled up and took a look.
What I am about to describe for you was by far the funniest thing I had seen... But I had to control myself because He was hovering over me.
I look at the screen and there are error messages stacked up in pop-ups all over the screen.. I mean it is Fuuuuuuuull of 'em. I reach for the mouse... ~>Wait for it<~
The mouse pad had been (duct) 100-mile-an-hour taped to the desk it was on... AND the Mouse Had been Taped to the Mouse pad. I look at it and blink... Look at it again He chimes in with.. "So, can you fix it?! I NEED this print out for the meeting."
"Yes Sir I can.. I will be right back"
I ran to my office and pulled my mouse from my desktop and headed back.
I unplugged the mouse they had taped down and Plugged it up.
I started shutting down the error messages and reading them as I went.
Got them all shut down and cleared out the print queue except his job and restarted it.
It started spitting out his print out.

Now you are wondering Why the tape... as was I... It was explained to me later that Most people in the office Didn't know how to work it so one of the guys from another area had set it up so that when the messages popped up they were all aligned... So when ever it "Beeped or stopped" they would go look... if there was a message The mouse was taped down over the X button so they would click once and it would go away.

That worked fine until an error happened and the messages started going all over the place... NONE of them had Any clue what to do... I should also say that at that time the military programs where mostly Keyboard controlled... text based menu structure stuff... So a mouse seemed like alien equipment to these yokels I guess.

Later in the day I was called on the carpet in "the Big Man's" office with my supervisor and his supervisor... both of them looking at me like "what the fuck did you do?!"
He informed me that I would be going to Seattle.. where I would take computer courses and be a regular student until I finished up the courses I needed.. when I got back I was going to be the "Computer guy" for the group.

So I got trained, I got out, I got here.
That is it in an anecdotally huge Nutshell.