The concept for 33 Sierra Tech started a long time ago, my career working with technology began in the early 1980s in the US Army as an electronics repair technician, 33S – Electronic Warfare / Systems Repairer. Where I was trained to be able to perform component-level repair on a wide range of electronic equipment. After my training, I was stationed in West Berlin Germany where I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work on many different types of equipment, which included anything from headsets to sophisticated mini-computer systems.
After the military, I continued to work with technology by doing field service work primarily on mini-computer systems and the peripherals associated with them used in a wide range of applications. I was based in the Baltimore Washington DC area but traveled up and down the east coast to support customers. During this time two separate projects stick out, the first is where I would travel to different cities to install systems at the USPS to print return labels. During the installation, there was almost always a problem with the printer and needing some repair. using my knowledge about component level repair I was able to determine the problem and source the component locally to repair the printer so a return visit was not required. The second was project that I got to work on during this time was upgrading the security system at The National Gallery of Art.
Then came one of the more interesting employments that I had, working at The National Gallery of Art “NGA” where I worked with electronic security and environmental detection systems. As an electronics technician at NGA, I was responsible for the installation and maintenance of alarm systems/devices, CCTV equipment, and environmental detection systems. While at NGA one of the largest projects that I played a key role in was the security console room renovation. This project required the temporary relocation of the console room, renovation of the area with the installation of some new equipment, and then moving console room operations to the newly renovated area. All this was done without compromising the effectiveness of the console room operations and the security of the buildings. Another project I was assigned was to assemble and configure wireless security devices that interfaced with the main security system. The results were a huge savings in time and materials needed to secure the art every time an exhibit changed. The third large project that I was involved with was the design and implementation of an electronic access control system at NGA.
From there I went to work at Georgetown University Hospital where I went back to working with mini-computer systems and was also part of the team responsible for renovation projects. One of the most rewarding renovation projects I was involved in was the NICU, Shortly after turning the newly renovated unit back over to the nursing staff. I was taking care of some finishing touches when I got to witness how the technology that we implemented made it easier for the nursing staff allowing them to focus on taking care of the prematurely born babies that required additional care.
For 26 years (1995 – 2021) I was employed at a high-tech trade association in Washington DC where my primary responsibilities were to support the enterprise resources comprised of network, servers, server applications, printers, CCTV, and AV. The main operating system used was Microsoft Windows on both the client and server systems
Let me tell you that did not stop there, even today after over 40 years I still enjoy being able to work with many different technologies.