Bruceholsted.com

 

 

 

Wesley B. Crawford, Esq., more affectionately known to those in the trade as "BC" has been with our group since 1994.  Known for his dogged discipline and determination, he can wrestle his way through tower problems that most would quickly give up on at first resistance.  Patient, methodical and highly driven, he never comes off a job empty handed.  He represents all that is virtuous about hard work.  BC is a veteran of the US Marines.

 

Reason would dictate that there are some things in this world that Clifford G. Barringer, Esq. is unable to repair, but as of today I do not know what they are.  Clifford is a veteran electron chaser of the first order.  He holds numerous commerical and amateur radio licenses and certificates.  He can troubleshoot and do board level repair with the best of them.  His current specialties are transmission line dehydrators, tower top amplifiers and tower light controllers.   Not content to work a normal 9 to 5 schedule, he can be found relentlessly thrashing miscreant amplifiers at all hours of the day and night.  Never one to let a piece of equipment get the best of him, he has been known to spend days flogging that which can only be billed for hours; the sign of a pure technician.  Craftsmanship has no better appologist than Cliff.

 

Paul Allen Fitler  worked with us for around 12 years or so.  He is, as far as I am concerned, from another planet.  His mind is in touch with some force of the universe that the rest of us can't fathom.  On occasions too numerous to mention and too voluminous to catalog, I have been on a job site vexed with some problem that seemed to defy any reasonable solution.  In such situations I've seen Paul get a very unusual look in his eye, start to twitch a bit, and then in a voice that is not his blurt out some completely off the wall verbage that seems to have no relevance to the problem at hand.  Once he finishes his diatribe, he will go quiet, we will all stand there a bit dumbfounded, and in time someone will say "No Paul, that'll never work", to which he immediately responds, "It will too, watch this", and in a matter of minutes or hours what seemed an irreconcilable obfuscatiion completely melts  into a solution right in front of us.  Paul functions on a level I'll never understand, and I'm sure glad I worked with him and not against him.  Paul is away from us at the moment, but in time he may be back with us again.

 

Pictured above is none other than the infamous Jerry Robinson, knower of many things. Jerry is a licensed paramedic as well as a high ranking official with our local fire department.  He can do just about anything known to man.  Part machinist, welder, towerdog, carpenter, plumber, electrician, there is nothing he cannot do.  Always on time, always prepared, always resourceful, you can give him a pile of scrap steel and some old circuit boards and He'll have a complete television station built and running in no time.  He is a problem solver of the first order, and unlike the rest of us, has a real job, which gives our group some degree of legitimacy regardless if we deserve it or not.

 

Jeffery P. Akin is a national poster child for hard work.  This guy, once geared up, stops at nothing.  Disciplined, determined, well prepared and well stocked, he is another that does not come home empty handed.  As well thought out as he is, he really needs to be in politics.  We could use someone in elected office that looks at every problem from every angle.  A fine fellow and great companion on any job, he is a kind, decent and respectful man who always is willing to help when asked. He is a former air traffic control systems technician who received a humanitarian award along with an achievement medal during his tenure in the United States Air Force.

 

 

Pictured above making new friends with a pony just prior to a lighting job is Dustin Cruseturner.  Dustin is a senior at our local univeristy and a Politcal Science major.  Someday he will rule the world, or at least some major city in South Arkansas, but until then he towerdogs with us.  Full of youthful exhuberance and vinegar, he is a fast climber and good hard worker.  In between diatribes on community, local foods, recidivism and global peace initiatives, he can work with the best of them and have fun doing it.  We've only had him a short while and he has endeared himself to all of us quickly.  After graduation we expect him to enter the world of "real jobs" before succumbing to his inner youth and coming back home to us 20 years down the road.

 

Well, this is me.  I've got scores of photos of the others, but precious few of me, which is as it should be.  I've been in this business quite a while.  I consider it a great blessing to wake up each day and go to a job that you love to do. I've been able to do that most of my life, and I'm sure thankful.

 

 

I am certain to many that the mild mannered individual pictured above, none other than Mr. Paul David Worthen, man about town, seems like just an average towerdog type fellow staring up a 300 ft. free standing tower on the gulf coast.  Were one to assume that, they would be terribly wrong.  What you see above is not a towerdog, but a miniature conglomerate on feet.  Paul Worthen has more jobs than most towerdogs have missing teeth.  He towerdogs for us and others, he vends at the local flea market, he makes a market in scrap metals, he trades in antique pottery and glassware and fixes and vends chain saws to boot.  One thing is for certain.  If it can be bought, sold, transported, traded, assesed or mortgaged, PDW can most likely make a market in it and turn a profit.  Ebayer of the first order and tower climber to boot, many a fortune 500 CEO would love to have his margins each month.

 

 

This is my friend Jeff Hogan.  Jeff is our latest employee.  I've not hired any towerdogs to speak of, excepting Dustin, since 2003.  Once I met this fellow, however, I just could not help but offer him a job.  Jeff has good experience, good ethics and good logic.  He's as good a fellow as one can find and I'm glad he is one of our group.  The tower trades are, by in large, a young man's game.  For us however, age is a benefit and not a hindrance.  Jeff, at 40 years plus, well exemplifies why we hire based on knowledge and reason rather then the ability to get up and tower quickly, as the younger set can do.