Department of Veterans Affairs Benefits Administration in Detroit Michigan. 

The mission of the Veterans Benefits Administration, in partnership with the Veterans Health Administration and the National Cemetery Administration, is to provide benefits and services to the veterans and their families in a responsive, timely and compassionate manner in recognition of their service to the Nation.

I was working for the Department of Veterans Affairs Administration Division on the 14th floor of the McNamara Building in the middle of Downtown Detroit, Michigan.

My department was IRM (information resources management).  Our main purpose was to keep all major computing systems available during core hours (7 AM to 4:30 PM) at least 95% of the time. We give service to four floors of the building where our offices are located.

The Supervisor is William Larson, he's the one that picked me up at the Airport.  Then the rest of the IRM Staff is Edmund Michelin, Keith Garbutt, Hugh Hill, Maris Norwood and their new Intern, Noel Vega.

Henry Verne is another great person I meet at the VA from the Paralize Veterans Division.  He is a very inteligent and   compassionate person that was always willing to help me in anyway.  He lend me a VCR so I could rent moviies, and he invited me to his family picnic in his house.   Every time I needed his help he was there.

During my internship I learned many things like creation of WebPages, JAVA and HTML Language, upgrading systems from Windows95 to Windows2000, trouble shooting, to fix hardware equipment (printers, cables, etc), installing different programs including new speech recognition programs for the blind (JAWS), memory cartridges for PC upgrading, inventory of hardware, ... a lot more.

I had my own desk, with my own telephone line and extension: 'Sweet! Ah?!'  And because I'm a Professional Computer Specialist I had my own Laptop for my apartment: 'Nice!' I had flex time, so I could work nine hours daily and have a day off, or I could choose what time to work so I could complete the forty hours week. 

IRM Staff Pictures

William Larson	Ed Michelin
Keith Garbutt	Maris Norwood
Hugh Hill	The IRM Staff
''This is hard work!!''	"Me, myself and the computer"
Henry Verne	The new Webmaster