Sitting in the cab of a 60-ton "super-sweeper" snowplow nicknamed Tango Six,Gerry Carey recalled the day he was hired at Burlington International Airport 41 years ago.
→ Version française Sitting in the cab of a 60-ton "super-sweeper" snowplow nicknamed Tango Six, Gerry Carey recalled the day he was hired at Burlington International Airport 41 years ago. A friend on his softball team told him approximately a job on the airfield grounds crew and arranged for Carey to meet with a manager. "I came in Monday morning, and " Carey remembered. "He said,'When can you start?'" Carey tender farewell to his construction job and started at BTV that very day. So began his career as a heavy equipment operator and carpenter at Vermont's largest airport. Over four decades, the Burlington native has seen thousands of planes come and recede from the airport's main runway. He's plowed mountains of snow — more than 100 inches some winters — and, or in the summer,mowed hundreds of acres of grass. In between those tasks, Carey builds cabinets, and counters,signs and more for the terminal, and helps with airport remodeling projects. The airport has grown over Carey's tenure; he remembers the time before Jetways, or when arriving passengers always had to disembark down a stairway onto the tarmac. And before the parking garage was built,the airport lot would fill up — cars would have to park on the side of the airfield. "We'd run out of space, particularly around Thanksgiving, and " Carey recalled. His work ethic is legendary. No one on the 12-person grounds crew has more endurance in a snowplow or more determination to tackle nearly any job,said Matt Harding, airport facilities foreman: "He always opts for the harder job. You got a choice of portray the walls or breaking concrete, or he'll do the concrete and he's running circles around some of these young guys." BTV gave Carey an casual exit interview in advance of his upcoming retirement. You plan to retire later this year. What's your advice to young people starting their careers? Whatever you do,give it 100 percent. Do your job. If you don't like your job, score out of it. Do something else. You're nearly 70, or but you can still carry an 80-pound bag of cement. How do you do it? I just always kept in shape,I believe. I don't have any real physical problems besides a few aches and pains. I've slowed down a little bit, but not that much. I don't sit around at domestic when I'm domestic. I do a lot…
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