Chasing Dreams

Book excerpt: Ernie Tolin had wanted to go to the US Naval Academy. He would not be able to realize that dream. He would pursue a second dream of working with aircraft and being able to work on the National Forest. He gave up a full time job to pursue this dream and would spend the majority or his life working for the US Forest Service. His first assignment was the “Air Attack Unit” at Chino airport. He would be reassigned to an aerial reseeding project on the San Dimas Experimental Forest. He would continue working on research projects and would receive a permanent appointment and work for the “Fuel Break Project”. Ernie would eventually get transferred to the new Forest Fire Laboratory in Riverside California. Helicopter projects, fire fighting, re vegetation and vegetation survey work would keep Ernie busy for a couple of years. Working at the Fire Lab would require analysis of large volumes of data. The only way to do the analysis was to use hand calculators or learn how to use mainframe computers. Ernie became a computer programmer and began writing programs to analyze not only field data but use the technology to dispatch fire equipment and make maps of fuel types for fire simulations. Ernie would be reassigned to Washington DC to work on automated mapping systems. Soon, he would be heading up a technical group of computer specialist. He would help develop specifications for major computer purchases. By the late 1970’s Ernie would head up a group of specialist to analyze data for the Roadless Area Review (RARE II). Ernie would be named as the Director of Computer Science in the California Pacific Island Region and he would move to the San Francisco Bay area. Ernie continued working as the Director of Computer Science & Telecommunications Staff until his retirement.