Dave
Samba Elder
Joined: July 11, 2002
Posts: 2718
Location: The Forest Moon of Endor, in the Redwoods
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 Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2006 6:37 pm Post subject: |
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I worked as a Seasonal Maintenance Worker in Yellowstone Park, from 1974-1976, and Redwood National Park from 1976-1980. At the time, the employement application was "Standard Form 171"- I don't know if it's changed in the last 25 years or not, but it used to be, you filled out the form, and got a score based on that application, and perfect would be a score of 100. THEN, they had a thing called "Veteran's Preference" which meant that if you had served in the Military, you got an extra 5 points added to your score, so, theoretically, if you scored perfect, 100 out of 100, a guy with this "Veteran's Preference" could come take the test, score less than you, say, 96, and with his extra 5 points, score higher than you, and get the job. Hey, it gets better- If you have ANY type of Service-connected disability, so much as a perpetual ingrown toenail that happened while you were in the Military, and you got a check from the Government for it, in ANY amount, $1.00 a month, you got an extra 10 points... so that guy could score a 91, and still ace you out. I made the mistake of doing my 3 years, 9 months, and 10 days, without getting hurt, so I only got the 5-point preference. It landed me the seasonal jobs, all right, but trying to get on full-time, in any of the more desirable parks (Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Grand Canyon, Hawaii Volcanoes, etc etc) was an excercise in futility. I was told I could go do seasonal work for 5 or so years in Death Valley, or some Godforsaken downtown shithole National Momument, I might stand a chance of getting full-time there, and then after working full-time there for a while, transfer out, but I wanted to be in the outdoors, not some inner city cesspool. Now a friend of mine got lucky- he, along with I, was a seasonal guy in Yellowstone, and he married a Park Superintrendant's daughter... since then, he has been a full-time Roads and Trails Foreman in Grand Teton, Grand Canyon, Crater Lake, Point Reyes, and right now is in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, living in Cherokee, North Carolina, and will be retiring with the sweet 3% @ 55 PERS retirement next year, and he figures to actually have more spendable income, than he does now.
Now, I'm all for giving the guys and gals that served their due, don't get me wrong, but I always felt that system needed a bit of a working-over, even though it managed to land me some cool jobs in some awesome places. I was on the back country trail crew in Yellowstone, 6 guys, 6 pack mules, the Park Service paid for all your meals while you were out there. (but NPS food wasn't the greatest, most of us would just go down to a creek or river we happened to camp by, and catch a bunch of trout and fry them up) and we were out for 10 days, and in town for 4.
It wasn't a bad gig, all in all, for a single, footloose and fancy-free guy, fresh out of the service, but trying to get in full-time, with the Government benefits and retirement, etc, might be tricky...
Hope this long-winded novel helps, pawesty....
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2003 Samba Chummie Winner- Best Story
"Those that matter, don't mind,
and those that mind, don't matter" |
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