@firestix 2000-2005. Yes French Creek is where I hung my hat as well. Went to FT Belvoir ?ÿas well old Belvoir. Yes National Geospatial Intel Agency at Ft Belvoir area is where they moved the NIMA university (DMA school) for a while. They were in the transition when I left the agency to move the USMC to another location for the TOPO school. I don??t know if it happened or not. I would go down on e in a while to visit old buddies and see the next generation of geospatial and geodetic surveyors . ?ÿYes it was a good school. I still have all my books and forms for any hand entry of geodetic work. Grid traverse triangulation intersection etc. ?ÿ i reviewed them some before taking the FS exam just encase. Lol. ?ÿ
Hah!?ÿ I left 2nd Topo in 1999.?ÿ Do you still talk to any of the guys??ÿ ?ÿI'm sure we know some of the same ppl.
@firestix Not as often as I should. ?ÿThere are a few that I stay in touch with but they came in after I was in . A couple that deployed with me. ?ÿI use to stay in touch more as most were on that Facebook thing but it didn??t take me long i was over Facebook very quickly. ?ÿI am connected to a few via linked in. ?ÿBut as you know we all get older kids keep us busy and such. ?ÿThis is about the only social platform I am on frequently. I am so busy Between farming kids and work. I get on this between job sites or a cool down on a job. All on this fancy i phone my wife got me. Lol. I served with a few you probably know or knew well. I miss it every day. But life happens. I went in later had been surveying for 7 years when I went in. I ripped both my groins in a horse accident when I graduated high school and was supposed to ship off to boot camp so They would not let me in. Had to wait 5 years after I had healed. But finally made it and loved it. Most of what the troops did was GIS and RSI. Everyone loved that work. Only a few liked the surveying side. Of course I didn??t have much of a choice with my past experience. I made Survey Section chief as a E-3 LCPL less than a year into the fleet. The section chief had been kicked off airfield surveys by NGA because of some serious mistakes and I was recommended by an NGA surveyor to lead. Talking about being thrown into the hornets nest. You know rank plays a big role and here I was performing as a Gunny billet. I spent a lot of late hours reading to be prepared the next day. Surveying was almost gone by the time I arrived. GIS was the new fad and glory catcher. But airfield surveys and HLZ studies and doing a check on a new software platform on the ground kept us very busy. With GPS traverse and mapping. Then the war 911 happened and other ideas came back to light of what we could do. If ya know what I mean. USMC saved my bacon when the recession hit as I was able to get on with NGA in MO. Area. As an orbital analyst for GPS constellation and such. Having the clearance and experience really saved me from loosing everything. Now i have taken a big step back in order to accomplish one of my goals I never met which is to become a Licensed Land Surveyor. Trying to remember everything I learned prior to 2000 and such has been fun. I did work with and for LS after USMC but not in a productive type setting more as a trainer consultant and teacher.?ÿ
Some of the last surveys I did at topo were airfield surveys. We set the Primary and Secondary control monuments at MCAF Quantico.?ÿ ?ÿI was in the party running a level loop as a Cpl and got promoted to Sgt out on the airfield at lunch.?ÿ At the end of the day, the loop busted and I got chewed because I was the senior Marine in the survey party!?ÿ Gotta love the Corps.
When I got out different agencies tried to snag me (because of the TS/SCI) but I wasn't having it.?ÿ They all wanted me to move to the DC area.?ÿ ?ÿHard pass for this country boy.?ÿ?ÿ
The Tribrach that came with my Geomax Robot seems as good as my Leicas.
what would be the brand and model of said tribrach?
@firestix Lol yes on sr man for sure. ?ÿWell I have walked behind you for sure. Set up on those PAC and SACs. Lol. Ran a traverse from the airfield up and over that hill to fire station below and back. Did a survey so they could remove only the trees necessary for line of sight study. For communication. Had one Marine from Wyoming never been stung before in his life. But we got into a mess of yellow jackets. 27 times he was hit. ?ÿYes when i got out the same thing about dc and ts sci. I was having a hard time finding work in surveying again i had covered to broad of an area from memphis tn to Georgia I was sending out resumes to. I finally got a call from a Trimble rep asking if i would consider working for them or one of there distributors. ?ÿI had had a big fight with Trimble after sending some of my troops to training. We had Trimble gear for gps. Old 4000 ssi msgrs units. Trimble had them for a week and they learned about 5700 units. I came un glued. After the phone chewing i gave them and had marines about to deploy that needed that training. My battalion commander heard about what i did and gave me nco of the quarter. Lol. I ended up deploying and training the troops on the fly. I spent days with no sleep processing gps data because i was the only one who had ever done it because Trimble messed up on the training. Now to Trimble defense usaf had the 5700 units and rtk units. As topo we had only geodetic stuff. But i was a head strong marine and all i saw was my guys didn??t get what they needed. It all worked out in the end. The trainer met me years later as i was attending Trimble certified instructor school. ?ÿWe had some laughs over some beers. He said his but was still raw from that fiasco . So I worked for a dealer for about a year covering multiple states. Before i landed with a private sector company and built a vrs network. I have a lot to learn and as quickly as i can to become licensed. I am not getting any younger. And this darn inflation and low pay wage is catching up to me. I might have to jump back to something else with my clearance unless I find a company that pays better. Where i am now is very low considering what i can do. But if i had the cad background i would be more marketable. Now they bring me into plan qa/qc data process find errors. But then Its just simple crew chief work. ?ÿI enjoy it just hard to swallow the pay after years of being way higher. My wife asks me what i am thinking sometimes lol. I am sifting through all the info for a new laptop then i will buy cad myself I reckon to learn on.?ÿ
If you looking for work ... try these guys.
I specifically got the dealer to swap the Geomax one for a Leica GDF321 on my Zoom90 (which is otherwise the same as Leica TS15) as they didn't appear like they'd last as long (and the top wooden Geomax legs not as good as Leica ones either). I got a 2", the 1" robots come with a different tribrach though.
@firestix yes well I am going to stay the course and do my best to get licensed. So beanie weenies are what is on the menu for a while. There are some changes coming asap to where i am now. I don??t want to leave them until that settles some. But then if I don??t get to move into a better position I will make a few phone calls to some companies that have hinted at me moving there way. I really would love to find that small mom n pop shop. Bigger companies have more compartmental mentality. If you are a crew chief its hard to get to a different position. Cad person your just that. Not that being a cad person is bad i need that for sure. Small shops you get to run the gambit more often. Research draft field etc.?ÿ
I use Wild GDF22 for everything. I purchased all lightly used. They weigh the same as a genuine Leica 322, function exceptionally well, and are a fraction of the cost. I've never seen fake Wild gear, at least on the parts of the internet I go to.
what would be the brand and model of said tribrach?
I don't know if it is labeled. Right now it's on a tripod in the woods 'cause I'm to old or lazy to carry it out and back again. I'll check.
@olemanriver I love my T3. It??s work out but?? it??s 65 yrs old and works as well as the day it was purchased.
You learn a lot with old T2 and T3. Not a fan newbies learning from scratch on a black box instruments.?ÿ
While I have a Leica tribrach for my Leica robot, I use a Seco 2152-05 for everything else. I have had no problems with any of the 3 I purchased. Made in Hungary, and half the price of a Leica 322.?ÿ
"For everything else"... Like back sights and GNSS setups? Or something else?
?ÿ
Those Leica tribrachs sure are great but like anything Leica is pretty spendy.
