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Work Trips

March/April 1985 - New Motorola Plant - Singapore

I was assigned to Purchase required Cad and Plotter systems for a
New Motorola Design and Production Facility in Singapore, Travel
to Setup up the Systems, Train Singaporean Designers and System
Management Persons there.

So Off to Singapore I go. Leave Ft. Lauderdale, FL to Atlanta, GA, then
To Los Angeles, CA to Toyko, Japan to Singapore- 31 hours - 11,350 miles

Finally Singapore City

Arrive in Hotel 3am Singapore Time.. Long Trip

The Hotel Dynasty was my Home for the month I was there.

View from My 9th Floor Window

The Famous Raffles Hotel around the corner from the Hotel Dynasty

A Great Dinner Theatre Restaurant

I had a 2 days Rest, Then it was off to Work !

Motorola had Leased Company Space in a Industrial Park
because the New Plant, 1 mile away was not finished yet.

Well, the First Day Starts just great.. The Airport Freight Handlers put
put the $150K Xynetics Plotter Crate on the Delivery Truck the wrong
way, so we could not get it off the truck onto the dock ! We had to wait
till a Crane could be called and get it off the truck for us.

Off the Truck finally and on the dock.

Getting the Plotter Uncrated.. and Inches only to Spare into the Elevator !

Of Course, The Leased Room is on the Fourth Floor.. Finally Safely in Place.

We Spend the next few days getting the ComputerVision Cadds System,
5 Color Workstations, and a Versatec Plotter installed and running.
The Man in the Blue shirt and His Wife next to him, were from a Cadd
Support Company, and came from Australia to help with the Xynetix's
Plotter setup and Precision Leveling that was necessary for it !

Time to Start Training the System Manager and the PC Designers

Teaching the staff how to use the flatbed plotter to create Photo Artwork

Two of the Designers working on the Rubylith masters

After about two weeks things were working well and Everyone is Happy.

View out the Cad Area windows across the Street where we ate lunch

In a cab on the way back to Hotel in the evening

Taking a Boat across the Harbor to Sentosa Island

There is also a Cable Car system to take you to and from the Island

The Monorail train to get around the island and Ships waiting to come in

Fort Siloso is on the Southern side of the Island looking out over the high
cliffs out to the Straits of Singapore. During WWII the invading Japanese
had to attack Singapore from the North because of the Heavy Guns that
could reach out 20 miles to attacking Japanese forces.
The Bottom right picture is an original Japanese bunker in the jungle below
Fort Siloso. I left the tour group and climbed down, There were still rifle
shell casings and other Military items undisturbed from WWII.

Coming back to Singapore City by the Cable Cars. It was so High !

This was a Thrilling Ride .. There was a Big Thunder Storm moving at us !

The wind was blowing us around and I was glad to get on the ground again !

We got off at the Building at the Harbor Shore but it also continued through
the building and up to the top of a small mountain.

The Trip lasted a month and all tasks were accomplished with the training
of the System manager and the PCB Designers. Management was very pleased.
I returned home and talked and helped them over phone till I left Motorola
in June of 1997.

About Three years after I left Motorola, Four of the
Original PCB Designers that I trained, were being flown from Singapore to
Motorola in Plantation, FL for Upgrade training...
When on October 31, 2000,
Singapore Airlines flight SQ006 crashed soon after take-off
at Taipei's Chiang Kai Shek Airport, killing 83 people

I was aware of the Plane crash when it happened but..
It was some years later that a good friend, who still worked at Motorola
told me about this and that "They had not wanted to come over, but had
asked that I come back over and do the training" ..She could only tell them
that I was no longer working for Motorola ! ..... It Breaks my Heart !

The Four Motorola Employee's Pictures have a Red box around them.