I was born in 1959 at the edge of the Black Sea. My mother was a nervous wreck and my father was a mechanic. He worked on the nuclear rockets silos and was killed in a horrible accident in a silo when I was 16. My mother went crazy and I joined the Navy. I defected three months later during a military exercise. I went to the dock climbed on a sail boat and just sailed away. Luckily the boat had plenty of food & water because I was quickly lost at sea. I had no navigation skills except my own good sense.
The Navy caught me after 15 days. I had a friend named Urslebunk, a Latvian, who ratted me out. He saw me get on the boat and reported me to the high command. Years later he told me he was a given a chicken dinner.
I was taken into custody and was scheduled to be tried for desertion. At the last minute I was offered the chance to emigrate to the United States. Wow. Hello. No, I would rather be tried for desertion and sent to Irkutsk for thirty years! Yes, of course the United States. I was sent to a the the town of San Topeka in the State of Kansasfornia in 1976 and started as sophomore in the San Topeka Hogbelts High School. Woo hoo Frampton Comes Alive! My English was very poor but I learned very quickly. "Hey what's shaking? "that's cool, man." stuff like that. I was very impressed by America. They had everything you could want. I studied to be a scientist because I knew they always needed scientists and the scientists back in my country were always well paid and had cars and apartments. I studied mathematics and engineering and was good at it. I received a scholarship to study at the University of Kansasfornia/ Merrriver under the tutelage of Dr. Robert Arsenist. He was a brilliant professor and steered me into advanced engineering problems. I was interested in aviation as was Professor Arsenist. He had a small Cessna airplane and we would take trips to the northern country to examine laboratories and go to seminars.