United States Air Force, 1972-1984.
For the first 6 years I was a 326x1A, Integrated Avionics Repair Technician. Did in-shop work on the avionics of the FB-111A fighter/bomber. The shop was one of the early automatic test station concept, with a central computer (*very* basic and primitive by today's standards) having the test procedures for the avionics units being tested on the stations throughout the shop. The FB-111A was the swing-wing aircraft, capable of a tad over 2x the speed of sound. (The 'Go-Fast' patch I use for my avatar is the Strategic Air Command's FB-111A in the swept and extended position, with the text "MACH 2+ FB-111" underneath.)
I was stationed at Plattsburgh AFB, NY, in the 380th Avionics Maintenance Squadron (380 AMS) for the 5 years or so that I worked on this aircraft.
I cross-trained to 305x0, Electronic Computer Repair Technician, and was stationed at Sembach AB, Germany for 3 years, working on the 407L mobile RADAR computer systems for forward air control. The unit was the 603rd Tactical Control Squadron (603 TCS). Our main work was done out at a site detached from the main base a few miles, near Mehlingen, Germany. We were a mobile unit, and periodically tore everything down, loaded it all on trucks and trailers, and deployed to other locations where we set it all up and slept in tents for a week or so (mostly for no other reason than just to prove we could do it).
After my 3 years in Germany I was sent to the 3944 Electronic Security Squadron at Fort Meade, Maryland. When I first got there our instructions were that we 'worked for the Department of Defense at Fort Meade', and only if anyone specifically asked could we say that we worked at the National Security Agency. (They had, very shortly before I got there, stopped denying their own existence.) Interesting assignment, fixing state of the art computer equipment along side some stuff that was 25 or more years old and headed for the Smithsonian when we finished with it. I don't know what the computers were used for, and didn't really care - we just fixed them when they broke, and had no need to know anything more.
I got out at the end of my second 6-year enlistment as an E5 (Staff Sergeant), and got a job in System Management at Bankers Trust Company in NYC. That was the big black building at 130 Liberty Street that portions of the south tower of the World Trade Center fell onto, creating a24-floor gash and eventually leading to the dismantling of the building. I supported the systems software on the Digital Equipment Corporation VAX systems.
I left there in 1992, several months before they set the truck bomb off in the parking garage of the Trade Center, moved to Seattle, and worked as a contractor doing network admin at a NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) facility here. NOAA took a 30% budget cut 2 years ago, and my job was part of the 30%, so I just sort of decided that I was retired at the point. My wife has been an engineer at Boeing for 35+ years, and also thinking about retirement.
OK - that's the military (and the rest of my life, it seems!) story for me. Looking forward to seeing some progress with this new car we've somehow become attached to...