posted on May, 26 2012 @ 08:54 AM
I worked three and a half as an engineer for DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and have a couple of responses to postings here. DARPA
has a lot of secrets, but it isn't the nefarious agency implied by some. If it weren't for DARPA, we probably wouldn't have the internet today;
that agency literally began it.
And I noticed the name of Dr. Robert Walker O'Neal mentioned in this thread. I didn't know his middle name but I met him over maybe a 2 or 3 week
time during my term at the agency. I guess he was reassigned elsewhere after that jcontract. He wasn't really a DARPA employee; he was a security
agent for a contractor company I can't recall. He wasn't an engineer but may have been the smartest of us all in many ways. He was certainly the
toughest, but that isn't necessarily saying much around a crew of research engineers. I recall that he was the most "fun" to have drinks with after
work because he could talk about most anything and had a sense of humor that, frankly, most of us geeks didn't. On the job, though, he was something
of a no-nonsense guy.
DARPA is responsible for an enormous number of medical advances that wouldn't exist had it not been for that agency. I would still be there had I not
been offered a university research position in my narrow field. It isn't a "bad" agency, it's a good one.