Pete Kott Trial Day 6 PM - Don't Forget Your Helmet

This afternoon we heard from Bill Allen, the former CEO of the company that was known as Veco. Under Government questioning he told about his life. This could have been an Alaska oral history project. Allen was born in New Mexico in 1937, family moved to Oregon where they picked crops, and then back to New Mexico. He dropped out of high school at 15 and got a job in the oil fields as an assistant welder for El Paso Natural Gas. "I thought I'd died and gone to heaven."

I should say here that before he began this tale, Prosecutor Goeke asked him about an accident. He was in a motorcycle accident in 2001 without a helmet and hit his head on the pavement. He has images, but sometimes has trouble finding the words to convey what he's thinking. It was emphasized that his thinking is not impaired, only his speech. And it was slow and deliberate as he sometimes paused waiting for the word to come to him - long pauses. This explained some of the long, long (15-20 seconds) on the telephone tapes.

Anyway, he had his first test (welding I think) at 17 and was a welder foreman at 21 and a supervisor at 24 or 25. I don't have time tonight to go into all the details, but he made it to Alaska where he worked on Cook Inlet oil platform named King Salmon in 1968. Arco asked him to form his own company which got joined with a similar one owned by Wayne Veltri and the beginings of Veco were formed.

OK, this is not going to get to deep today. Tonight is Erev (the eve of) Rosh Hashona and we have people over for dinner and then we go to synagogue. Tomorrow I will again miss the trial , this time to observe Rosh Hashona.

I think the key points will be available at the Anchorage Daily News, and I'll get blogging again tomorrow night. But it is interesting to see the effect of education here, or rather limited education. At the Anderson trial, most of the key players had at least a college degree. They at least talked about right and wrong. There was some profanity, but not too much. Here, the focus is strictly on getting things done so I can get what I need for my company to get business or for me to get a job. The 'fuck's are frequent in the conversation. And there is no discussion at all about the public interest, the public good. The legislature is just an obstacle to be overcome and has no real legitimate role. At least it hasn't been mentioned or talked about. Of course, one can argue that those with education should be held to a higher standard and I don't have a response to that.

Anyway, people are here and I have to quit. Happy New Year to all.