On 9/11/2001 I was at Work at The WREX Plastics Factory when a co-worker drove up and said: "They Bombed the Pentagon"... and I said... "Good" ---> Read More:

In my opinion the Pentagon has done a great deal of EVIL in my lifetime and so... if someone has bombed it, GREAT!

We went to work and the quality control guy came around my station once an hour with updates about the World Trade Center and Airplanes... My co-workers liked to listen to the radio playing rock music as we worked and none of them was interested enough in the news to change the station...

I really enjoyed working at the factory in Chico. It was simple mindless work that I excelled at. Since I was willing to put a tiny amount of effort into making great parts I was dramatically better at the job than the vast majority of the other workers... The boss was glad to have me... We made a lot of plastic parts for a COKE vending machine. To this day, whenever I see a machine I remember making every part with fondness. We also made brake shoes for a wheelchair and I kept one of those on my keychain as a reminder of why I didn't want to work at the Factory all my life...

I was promoted to part time office manager and had to learn how to use the computer system that tracked production. I guess that's what made me become interested in learning computer science and lead to my attending Humboldt State University in Arcata.

Chico has a very hot climate in the summer and Arcata is cool and rainy... My wife challenged me to find some way to escape the heat and I took Student loans from the Department of Education... and we moved.

Read more of my autobiography at: http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2018/03/growing-up-in-los-gatos-california-in.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20150716201810/http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=3845

Secretary Rumsfeld Interview with Parade Magazine

Presenter: Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld
October 12, 2001

(Interview with Lyric Wallwork Winik, Parade Magazine)

"Here we're talking about plastic knives and using an American Airlines flight filed with our citizens, and the missile to damage this building and similar (inaudible) that damaged the World Trade Center. The only way to deal with this problem is by taking the battle to the terrorists, wherever they are, and dealing with them." 

The Interview Took Place In Rumsfeld's Office... at the Pentagon... So that's the Building he is referring to... 

Originally Published on DEFENSE.GOV

I spent 6 Years working for the US Government Designing Computers That BLOCKED RADIO WAVES FROM ESCAPING from the Equipment. Project TEMPEST. The Goal was to Prevent The Russians from Eavesdropping on Our Military Computers and reading secret messages. The Basic Idea was to make the BOX that thee Computer Circuit Cards were housed in out of Metal... with small holes for LEDs and Switches on the front panel. This is Specialized Knowledge that I ASSUMED everyone knew because I Knew... OOPS...

TEMPEST (Telecommunications Electronics Materials Protected from Emanating Spurious Transmissions)[1] is a U.S. National Security Agency specification and a NATO certification[2][3] referring to spying on information systems through leaking emanations, including unintentional radio or electrical signals, sounds, and vibrations.[4][5] TEMPEST covers both methods to spy upon others and how to shield equipment against such spying. The protection efforts are also known as emission security (EMSEC), which is a subset of communications security (COMSEC).[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempest_(codename)