David D FermanWhile growing up in a low-rent corner of Wichita, Kansas during the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and World War II, Dave won All-American and Quill and Scroll awards for high school journalism, and worked his way through college beginning as a 17-yar old bartender and bouncer in a honkey tonk roadhouse and a cowboy on a trotting horse ranch, by playing smash-mouth defensive end and kicking footballs, rough necking in the oil patch, painting airplanes at BeechCraft, bucking rivets at Boeing, and eventually on the G.I. Bill. Dave turned down a contract with the Boston Red Sox so he could stay eligible to play college varsity football, basketball and baseball on scholarships. During the Korean War, Dave was a U.S. Marine machine gunner, a Military Policeman, a Drill Instructor, and a pilot until he crashed, burned and almost drowned in a Florida swamp. Dave then served a covert tour with Navy Air Intelligence in the Mediterranean Theatre and the Middle East. After graduation from college and certification as a high school English and science teacher, Dave finally realized that the defense industry paid double his teaching salary. He joined BeechCraft to write airplane flight manuals, was promoted to Vice President at Stanley Aviation, extended his horizons to proposals and marketing with three Top Ten companies, and became a Program Administrator for the Lockheed-Martin Corporation until he retired. Read More Read Less