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I had two level ten positions, one as Superintendent of Main Office Windows, where I had the Colorado Springs two million dollar stamp stock, and issued bulk permits among other things. The other ten was as Tour Superintendent on tour one at the Mail Handling Unit on El Paso St.. It was at this time that Crystie Rae Bachelder was born on May 1, 1968 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. From there I went to San Francisco and Western Regional Headquarters after postal reorganization, to become a facilities analyst. The course material later was covered in two weeks, but we were there for three months. Region was short handed after reorganization, and our class helped fill the gap. After the three months, Bill McInery asked me to stay for another detail. I elected to return to Colorado and the Colorado Springs District Office. At the district office, I first had desk space on the back side of my boss' desk. My boss, Vernon Smith, and I have rubbed elbows several times since. I consider him a very good friend, we have spent many long hours working together both on the road and at home in the office. Prior to another reorganization, I was promoted to a EAS 12 Mechanization Coordinator for Facilities position by Jim Jellison, then District Manager. This was because my position preceded a formal job description and position, so Jim used the closest position he could find to get me the salary he thought I deserved. While at the district office, I was detailed, at differing times, to both District Industrial Engineer and Director of Mail Processing positions. We worked ourselves out of a position and the district was absorbed by Denver, at that point I went to Canon City, Colorado as Superintendent of Operations under Don Logan as Postmaster. When Pat Warner transferred to Pueblo, I was dug out of the woodwork, and offered the Postal Operations Specialist position for Pueblo, responsible for engineering in southern Colorado. I accepted when I was guaranteed a domicile in Canon City. I moved my office upstairs in the Canon City Post Office. I started instructing in Systematic Layout Planning Courses, nation- wide under Warren Hultberg at Western Region Headquarters. At the same time, I remained on the Western Region trouble shooter list and had numerous details from region and Denver district, involving about fifty per cent of my time. One such assignment was to join a national group of 18 Methods Time Management trained people to become an elite force in advanced MTM standards. We went to Postal Service Training and Development Institute Headquarters in Bethesda, Md., to be trained in the advanced procedures and sign for a numbered reference manual. While there, Mason Brown, Zae Winter, and myself went to the Chesapeake Bay House with Jim Hopper, the former I. E. from Billings who was on detail to Headquarters. The Chesapeake Bay House is an all you can eat sea food place that serves chicken to fish haters such as me. Mason and Zae decided to have an eating contest, and as they ordered plate after plate, working their way through the menu and back again the waiter got slower and slower until he forgot where our table was. We sat and watched them eat long enough, that I got hungry again and had another chicken platter. That not being enough, we went to Georgetown for a walking tour and ice cream cones, when we got back to where we had parked the car, the lot was closed and a cable was up. It took us awhile to overcome that obstacle. I was tired and stuffed. Once again I was in a position of working myself out of a job, and Pueblo Management Sectional Center was absorbed by Colorado Springs. I was excessed again, and decided to take the Monument, Colorado Postmaster position. I felt secure in working for Denver, in that, the Postmaster had changed since I had stood up to Denver on behalf of the Colorado Springs District. Even though the top management had changed, the next level of management in Denver was in place. The next thirty months of my career were extremely rough, as they considered it 'get even time'. I never once had been vindictive in my dealings with Denver, I just insisted on the right thing for the state, and if Denver got their toes stepped on, it was because they were promoting their own self interests rather than the interests of the state, and Postal Service at large. If I hadn't eventually taken the Senior Postal Operations Specialist position in Colorado Springs to leave Monument, Gary Packer and the Denver managers would have ruined my career. -25-
