Back in the early 1980s, Brett Walker had just landed a job at Airborne Freight making $2.60 per hour – a job he felt lucky to have.
“Work was really hard to get back then,” he explained.
After nine years with the company, during which he went to school to become a diesel mechanic, he landed an interview at Foss.
“I wanted to be a mechanic. I didn’t get hired (then), but (they) ended up coming back a week later saying, ‘Hey, if you want to start, you have to start now.’ I’d been working this job for nine years at Airborne and I said, ‘What do you mean I’ve got to start now?’ So I took three weeks vacation to try this place out.”
After three weeks of steady work, Brett Walker quit his job at Airborne and was hired on at Foss. He had just bought a house and had a toddler son.
Born and raised in Seattle, he has worked for Foss for 25 years and doesn’t live far from where he grew up: south, near Burien. When his son, Ryan, graduated high school in 2004, his introduction to the shipyard was happenstance.
“I wasn’t doing much,” Ryan said.
“Actually, we had a fishing boat here, and we had somewhere where someone couldn’t get in a hole,” Brett explained. “I said, ‘My son could probably get in there.’ So he ended up coming to work for two days for a fishing boat. We got busy, and I ended up saying, ‘My kid could do that, my kid could do that.’ We had an apprentice program starting up, so we got him in there.'”
Ryan started the program in 2006 and is now a Journeyman, working in the Tool Room. The elder Walker works in the Outside Machine Shop and is Shop Steward for the machinists.
“It’s troubleshooting; it’s fixing things that need to be fixed,” Brett said of his work.
The two have both traveled for Foss – to Alaska, California, and most recently together to Abu Dhabi, where they stayed for a month.
“It was their winter, and it was still 90 degrees at night,” Ryan said.
“110 degrees during the day. I honestly never knew any of that was over there,” said Brett, laughing.
“I’m pretty happy,” Ryan said, of his career.
“It’s a good yard. It’s good people,” echoed his father.
The two live together, but work different shifts.
“He’s single,” joked Brett, “But, seriously, it’s been going pretty good. I like living with him, I like working with him, it’s great.”
And while thoughts of retirement aren’t far off for Brett, he said he doesn’t have big plans.
“I like to stay home,” he smiled.
