ALHN - Makovec

James H. Makovec

My name is James H. Makovec, MSgt USAF Ret. I was born in Marshfield, Wisconsin in August 1946 which makes me one of those wonderful 'Babyboomer' dudes who is skeptical of just about everything!! **You do know that we were the ones who started questioning the 'establishment' (which means everything from our parents to religion to the government).

** Notice also that the head shed of a lot of these 'Militias' we hear about are Babyboomers? hhmmmmmm. Enough of that rambling, but, I do so like to talk about MY view of the babyboomers philosophy. (You know,- the world according to Mr. Makovec :-) To continue, my family moved to North Idaho where I was raised. I attended a Catholic grade school and public high school. I departed North Idaho in 1965 and spent twenty wonderful years in the United Sates Air Force as an Aeromedical Technician (flying medic) along with a seven year stint in Medical Administration at Yokota Air Force Bases surgical hospital in Japan. I love the Orient and managed to spend thirteen years out of my twenty over there.

Needless to say, I married a very pretty Japanese girl. (Mineko) - over 28 years now! - I wonder sometime how she managed to stick with me all that time?

Along the way we had three wonderful children, Henry, Ivan, and Michiko. Hank graduated from the University of Idaho in 1997 and recently attended Vaxjo University in Sweden for a six month introduction to Swedish Language and Culture. Michiko has started at North Idaho Junior College and is working part time and living on her own now. My beautiful son Ivan passed away in 1990. Hard to deal with but life goes on.

From left to right my son Henry, my wife Mineko and my daughter Michiko.

So what am I doing now?

Well, I received a nursing degree while in the Air Force but after I retired I went to work for a research company called Vector Research at Bayview, Idaho. For 10 years I worked on the US Navy SSN-21 Seawolf submarine research program drawing all sort of parts and pieces of the ship using AutoCAD and other drawing programs. Vector Research was bought out by a larger company called A&T (Analysis and Technology). As Vector, we bid on small contracts for the Navy and kept the site at Bayview very lucrative. As the contracts expired, so did our work. Soooo - as I received my 10 year plaque, I also received my layoff notice. I managed semi-retired for about a year and a half and was called back to work with the Vector unit at Bayview, Idaho again. Now a contract looms the first part of April 99. It's an all or nothing contract. Sooo - if the contract goes our way I'll have another 5 or so years of work - if not - back to semi-retirement. So goes life.