Newsletter #21 Paul Jab work profile
Sons To Glory Newsletter #21
New Moon - July 29, 2014

 

My Current Career Path

by Paul Jablonowski

July 29, 2014

--- This newsletter was taken from an article that my employer asked me to write for the July 2014 company newsletter regarding my job history and tasks ---

The Early Years

My two sisters and I were blessed to have great parents who instilled in us a good work ethic and personal discipline at an early age. Therefore, my career path started at age 13 when I created flyers to put in neighborhood mailboxes to begin a lawn care business. This helped me to save up enough money to buy my first car (Ford Mercury Capri) at age 16 and get a "real" job at a golf course as a golf-bag/cart/range attendant in a suburb of Atlanta Georgia where I grew up. I especially enjoyed being able to play golf for free and often played golf all day on Monday's during the summers when the courses were closed.

Auburn University

I attended Auburn University for four years and graduated in 1991 with a bachelor of science in Industrial Design which is a branch of Architecture that includes product design such as cars, furniture and electronics. One summer during college I moved to Washington DC and was a garbage man. Yes, that is correct I hung out on the back of a garbage truck and went door to door picking up trash in our nation's capital. So, I can tell you first hand, there is an insurmountable amount of trash in D.C. :-) Another summer in college, I moved to Orlando, Florida and landed a job at Disney World where I became a "Horticulture Expert" overnight planting trees, trimming bushes, and enjoying the Florida sunshine while living in a campground. The best thing that happened to me at Auburn was meeting my beautiful wife Linda our sophomore year.

Move to Huntsville

Linda and I married shortly after college graduation and moved to Huntsville without any jobs because we liked the area so much. So, my first job with a college degree was being a waiter at the Pizza Hut on South Parkway. Linda outshined me as usual and worked for Westinghouse. She soon helped me obtain a job at Westinghouse working as a technical illustrator and writer for the Non-Line of Sight Missile System. After a few years of Department of Defense (DoD) work, we decided to move to Atlanta where our oldest son Joshua was born. I tried my hand for three years working at both a graphics company and an Industrial Design firm where I designed and built tradeshow exhibit booths and created graphics for signs. Ever since I was a child, I always enjoyed working with my hands and building models or drawing things. But we longed to get back to Huntsville because we liked the size and scope of Huntsville to raise a family. So after securing a job with DESE Research, we moved back to Huntsville where we have been since 1997, and absolutely love it!

DoD Career

My career in DoD blossomed at DESE Research where I worked for almost 15 years. My experience working for several different missile defense programs was in the areas of multimedia (technical drawing, video and 3-D animation), simulation software testing, and data analysis. One of the most interesting tasks was a three year on-site job with the Missile Space Intelligence Center where I worked as an Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) intelligence analyst collecting IR data from foreign missile launches and briefing the information in collective meetings with other types of missile intelligence fields. Working at the Software Engineering Directorate (SED) as a Software Test Engineer, and the Boeing Jetplex on the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) element of the Ballistic Missile Defense System were also great learning experiences where I participated in numerous missile flight and ground tests. My other two boys, Stephen and Seth, were born in Huntsville during this time to complete the Jabs5 - my wife has "JABS5" on her license plate. :-)

Why dB?

In May of 2012, I moved to deciBel Research on the recommendation of two friends, Bryant and Richard, whom I had worked with for several years in the past and who were dB employees. I had helped test some of the Threat Analysis software that Richard built and is still working on here at dB in a morphed form called ARGUS (I happened to read about it in the May deciBel newsletter). I also wanted to gain some experience in radars which made dB a good move. So, I have been working on the JLENS program for over two years in the CMDS-SIL on the Arsenal doing analysis work for the SUR and FCR radars. The field experience in UTTR (Utah Test and Training Range) has been the most interesting part of this job. While it is fun to visit a desert such as Utah, it is always good to come home to the "garden of Eden" in Huntsville! I have also really enjoyed getting to know Randy and Lyn working this task. Being able to meet the variety of highly intelligent people who work at dB has been a highlight which I look forward to doing more of in the future.

Friday the 13th and dB

There were three Friday the 13th's in 2012 (which each happened to be 13 weeks apart!) and all of them had connection with my transition to dB. (The maximum possible number of Friday the 13th's in one year is three, which is rare). On January, Friday, 13th, I had my first dB interview with Todd. Then three months later on April, Friday the 13th, I had my second interview at dB with Mike who gave me the start. Then on July, Friday the 13th, it was the first time my entire family visited dB for the "summer luncheon" where my kids participated in a watermelon spitting contest. So, I guess Friday the 13th has been a lucky day for me and my connection with dB!

Personal Note

In my spare time, I enjoy outdoor activities with my three sons including backpacking, camping, caving and boating. Also, I enjoy reading and playing guitar. Finally, I have written a Christian book talking about my faith where I've even used my hand-working skills to build a scale model of Ezekiel's temple which can be viewed at my website - http://sonstoglory.com/temple.htm

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