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LOL! I joke that when I retired, they had to lay two people off!
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I used to sell, service and repair small offset printing equipment. One shop I used to visit every month had a middle aged fellow who seemed to move like molasses but I noticed early on that he kept the machinery running. One day his boss got ticked off about something and started telling me that he wanted to fire the guy. I told him that if he did he would have to hire at least two and probably three people to replace him. He looked at me as if he had never seen me before! I know he thought I was crazy but a couple of years later the man developed cancer, he worked as long as he was able to work but finally had to stop and he only lived a very short time afterward. Sure enough, on my next visit I saw that the shop that one man had run was full of people trying to do what he used to do. From then until the business was bought and the print shop closed they never had another operator who could do it all by himself.

When I was 20, I had a job in a sporting goods store. One day I was assigned to stock a show tree with ski boots. Two other employees were assigned to do the same with another shoe tree.

The other two stocked the tree with the sizes in random order. I stocked mine ordered by by shoe sizes, and finished the job before they did.

I was reprimanded by my supervisor. Why? Because, unlike my fellow employees, I did the work while sitting down on a chair. It appeared to the supervisor that I was resting instead of working.

Sure enough, on my next visit I saw that the shop that one man had run was full of people trying to do what he used to do. From then until the business was bought and the print shop closed they never had another operator who could do it all by himself.

That's not a success story. That's failure. Nice job burning the ol' guy out, not hiring anyone and not passing the torch....

I think your story is a cautionary tale for what may happen to US DoD engineering.