Friday, August 31, 2018
My condolences to Jim's Family - Gas Turbine manufacturing - I remember Jim' s "Label" as being the last of the WWII "Bull of the Woods" foremen - my most vivid memory was that he initiated any new Engineer having to work on the factory floor by his "Belly Bump", which amounted to him grasping the Newbie by their hips and forcefully pulling them into his belly, generally 'knocking the wind out of them' for a short period - as a 8 eight year veteran (USAF - Staff Sargent - Non-Com Officer in charge of relatively large groups of men,) I was not the young Engineer Jim was accustumed to - I had been warned of the potential Belly Bump and never gave Jim the opportunity to perform his initiation on me - one day he came up to me from behind and in frustration actually Bit me on the shoulder, which he considered accomplishing his "new Engineer" action - I had no real problem with that, so we learned to work "together" (I was a Quality Control Engineer, so In potential opposition to his work output !) - what I never told Jim was when I undressed that nite for bed, I discovered that i very plainly showed a set of teeth marks on my shoulder - I was going to show that to my wife until I realized the explanation that "a GE Foreman bit me" would be quite difficult for her to believe and for several weeks after I never exposed my shoulder to her - Jim had accomplished more than he ever intended !!
We had a great group in GT manufacturing - which I have missed for years
my sincere condolences
Dick Allen
