I recently graduated from Naval Nuclear Power School as a civilian engineer. I am very proud of having completed the course of study above my own expectations, but it definitely took a lot of work. It is a school experience unlike any other. I thought college was demanding but I was not pushed to learn as intensely as I was at NPS. I spent many long days inside the Rickover Center trying to learn as much and as quickly as I could. I will remember it as an incredibly unique and special experience to go to a military training command as a civilian.
After graduating from ISU, I took a trip with some friends out to the Denver, Colorado area. We rented a house for the trip and spent a lot of the time going on hikes and shopping in Boulder. The following are some pics from that trip. Obviously, I enjoyed all of it, but our hike at Maxwell Falls Trail was particularly memorable.
Here I am at the site of the first sustained fission reaction in history. This fissionable mass, overseen by Enrico Fermi, was called Chicago Pile-1, since it was basically a big pile of blocks serving as neutron moderators. The plaque shown is on the campus of the University of Chicago. I know it is kinda low res; I need to get the full res pic from the person who took the pic.
Here is a more detailed pic I took of just the plaque itself.
Here is a picture of me with the M65 atomic cannon (nicknamed Atomic Annie), used in the Grable shot of the Upshot-Knothole series of nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site.
This is the full thing:
More about the M65 can be found at my nuclear technologies page here.