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condition was that he would get the interest that the slush fund would collect. The skipper gave his approval and we got paid. Later, I was walking in the Sub Base headed for liberty in New London, I heard a car horn's beep and Wimpy pulled up alongside and gave me a ride. He said I just wanted you to ride in this brand new Chrysler that I bought with the interest from the slush fund. Ah, the power of compound interest. Save your money, boys! I got tired of diesel fuel and salt water dripping on my steaks, so I volunteered out of the submarine service. My next ship was the Basilone, the most fully integrated Anti- submarine warfare ship in the navy. I probably would have re-enlisted on board, but I changed my mind when the executive officer handed out summary courtmartials to a group of our crew who had to ride the shore patrol boat back to ship with me. They had been left behind from the last liberty launch because it was too full. I felt that I had better things to do than serve under someone that unjust. I started college at Colorado College, majoring in Geological Engineering. I settled for it instead of my high school plan of Veterinary School at Fort Collins. The reason, five years seemed less than six for becoming a vet. In short order, even though I was living at home, I had to stop to pay off debts. I went to work at Climax Molybdenum Company. I was put into their management trainee program. That winter, there was fourteen feet of accumulated snow before I came down the hill in January to get married on January 28, 1956 to the girl with her tongue stuck out. It seems that she grew into quite a fetching young lady, and she stole my heart. We spent our honeymoon going to Boulder to find an apartment, enroll in CU, and buy books. We spent one semester there and I got impatient, wanting to start earning a living immediately. Raymond Thomas Bachelder was born on February 3, 1957 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. On May 9, 1958, Ronald Dean Bachelder opened his eyes in Colorado Springs. After several jobs, I ended up at the Colorado Springs Post Office. I also tried another semester at Colorado College. I was on the night shift and was carrying 18 hours of college courses. Not any course, but Calculus, Mineralogy, Crystalography, Historic Geology and the likes. Half way through the semester my lack of sleep caught up with me and I bogged down. Later I quit the Post Office when I felt promotions were too slow in coming. I went to South Dakota to work on the Oahe Dam at Pierre. In the fall that job was dying out, and I ended up back at the Colorado Springs Post Office. This time I got acid poured on my head. I was working as a carrier, but they wanted me back inside as a clerk. I resisted. My take home hours dwindled, and finally I asked if I had leprosy or what? I was offered a detail as a railway postal clerk on the Omaha and Colorado Springs Rock Island Rocket. I accepted it and the assignment back into the clerk ranks. They had gotten what they wanted. It was during this period that Randall John Bachelder was born on February 14, 1961, again in Colorado Springs, Colorado. When my detail was over I went back inside as a clerk. Later at CU Extension I took EDP I & II, that opened the door eventually to the Army Management Engineering Training Agency course, in Rock Island, Illinois, for systems analysts. After completing the course I was supposed to be assigned to a postal data center at either Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis or Washington D. C.. President Kennedy was assassinated and Lyndon Johnson took over. A new broom sweeps clean, and my job evaporated in consolidations. The Postal Service now had an employee, a substitute clerk no less, who had expensive training and no place to go. Shortly after I made regular, I was promoted at a dizzying rate, never missing a level on the way up, and with two promotions a year. I was a PFS level four clerk and was promoted up to PFS nine before I slowed down. I was feeling a little down, because I had slowed in my ascension, when Erman Biondini, the Superintendent of Mails, reviewed my progress and pointed out that it was rather unprecedented, and that now I had finally gotten into the real world. -24-
