Hyman Rickover was considered the father of the nuclear Navy. He pushed abrasively to get the hidebound old brass to accept the need for ships, especially submarines, that did not have to refuel weekly. The Navy was set in its ways and resisted. At one point Congress told the Navy no more promotions until Capt. Rickover is an admiral. He became the first Jewish person to achieve flag rank. He was so pushy that a joke went around the Pentagon. An admiral died and went to heaven. On arrival he saw a mailbox with Rickover’s name on it. He tells St. Peter “If that SOB is here, I’d rather go to the other place.” Peter replies “Don’t worry, that’s just God he only thinks he’s Rickover.
Admiral Rickover warned us: “If you are going to sin, sin against God, not the bureaucracy. God will forgive you but the bureaucracy won’t.”
I did something the bureaucracy decided was a sin. I had been retained to reconstruct (analyze) an accident on a construction site. Workers were reroofing a commercial building. It had a rock roof, that is there was a final layer of gravel over the roofing material to protect the membrane and emulsion from weather abrasion, quite common in San Diego where it never snows. They followed the usual procedure of moving half the rock to one side, so they could strip and repair the other half. A workman moving a wheelbarrow of material crashed through the roof.
My analysis of the structure indicated it was not overloaded, but the beam that failed looked suspicious to me. The break was too clean, like at was previously cracked. We retained a forest product professor from a university to look at the failed beam. Quite simply the beam, marked No. 1 select structural, was No. 2 structural, to be used for secondary members only. The case settled and the workman was compensated.
A year later, I was accused of practicing civil engineering while licensed as a mechanical engineer, but a beam is a beam is a beam, whether it’s a rafter or a helicopter rotor. The analysis is based on the same math. The claim against me was not made by any litigant, but the civil engineer retained by the vendor who sold the off-specification beam. Here’s the first weirdness. Industry standard allows 10% of the lumber in a batch to be off specification and it’s the builders responsibility to not use them. That’s like buying 10 oranges and finding one is a lemon.
So, I had to go to court. The administrative court decided I had not done anything wrong, but to please the other side they had me retake the simple open book ethics test again. They admonished me not to practice civil engineering. I thought that was the end of it. The bureaucracy was not done with me. On their monthly report titled Disciplinary Actions, the board of registration cited my name with no details, so it looked like I had been disciplined. They republished that monthly for years, along with those who had lost their license or been fined. At about the same time, I was elected president of my local engineering society chapter. When the discipline report reached the state professional organization, they looked it over and decided it was not significant, I remained president. Nevertheless, the reports were used to embarrass me and impacted my professional credibility and income.
A friend with constitutional law experience appealed the decision to the board, upon re-examination of my case they concluded that as I said, a beam is a beam is a beam and voted to rescind the discipline notice. Here’s where it gets even weirder. The new monthly discipline notice was worded to headline the past action, and footnote the miscarriage. Under the disciplines headline they listed my name as if I was now being disciplined then noted the past action was rescinded. That misleading notice ran for another two years. The bureaucracy never forgives, even the mistake was theirs.
Ken Obenski is a forensic engineer, now safety and freedom advocate in South Kona. He writes a biweekly column for West Hawaii Today. Send feedback to obenskik@gmail.com