Contributed by Jeff Allen, Technician II. We had an unexpected visitor at the Altec AIR manufacturing facility recently.  It seems this bird (previously thought to be an owl) had been trapped in the shop for a few days.  Some of the Production Associates had actually started calling him "Tom" because he seemed to enjoy dive bombing Associate Tom Mazorowicz throughout the day. One morning, Associate Allen Hunter came upon what he thought was 'a dead bird' on the floor of the Monitoring Production Area. To all of our surprise, this little guy was still alive, but just barely. During our efforts to provide aid to "Tom", Associate Danny Norris assisted me in getting a little water in him successfully.  I then asked Associate Nora Aragon to see if she could track down the Birds of Prey Foundation located here in Broomfield, CO. Upon contacting them, they made it a priority for us to meet with them at their facility. Apparently, this bird was the

Contributed by Phil Clough, Engineering Manager. My intent going into this blog post was to talk about where I started at Altec, how Altec helped me grow as a person, and what I think an “outsider” should know about Altec. As the thoughts flowed from brain to keyboard, it took on a slightly different direction, but I think I fulfilled the purpose. Putting this on paper has caused me to once again realize how special of an organization Altec continues to be. So, grab yourself a drink and find a comfy chair. When I first came to Altec almost 15 years ago I was just getting started in my career. I was your stereotypical antisocial B-average mechanical engineer fresh out of college. Through high school and college, I had worked jobs in landscaping, dishwashing, inbound and outbound phone sales, auto parts sales, professional auto repair, and an internship in quality engineering. I thought I had the world figured out. But the environment at Altec was something I had never seen or experi