Photo By Laurie Pearson | Telfinues Preszler, Heavy Equipment Mechanic better known as Papa Tel, receives a...... read more read more
At 86 years old, Telfinues Preszler continues to be a highly skilled artisan in the Principle End Item Branch at Production Plant Barstow, Marine Depot Maintenance Command, aboard Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, Calif.
“I started working when I was nine years old,” said Preszler. “My first job was selling newspapers. I did lots of things, like working in a grocery store. I counted eggs if that’s what they wanted.”
He was even a bellhop once. Eventually, however, Preszler found his way into the Air Force where he served as an aircraft mechanic. He enlisted in 1952, then retired after 26 years, as a technical sergeant, in 1975. From there he worked for an officer’s club briefly before being hired on with Northrup Grumman, an “Aerospace and Defense Company,” where he worked as a heavy equipment mechanic. After conducting training for them for approximately four years, Preszler took a job at Norton Air Force Base. It was when that base closed, that he took a position at PPB.
Don’t recognize the name Telfinues Preszler? That’s because he is known around the plant as “Papa Tel.”
“I’ve done basically the same thing for each of these organizations I’ve worked for,” he said. “The type of equipment might have changed, from airplanes, to MK48s, to trucks to P7s, but it’s all basically the same. We take things apart, fix them up, then put them back together.”
After over 60 years in federal service, he has mechanics down to a fine art.
“We go way back,” said Malcolm Sims, team leader. “When Papa Tel came onboard, he was assigned to my team, down at the other end of this bay.”
He pointed down the long building to the other end with a smile.
“We worked the ready line to amphibious vehicles,” Sims said. He was one of my guys then, and he’s one of my guys again now. He, just like my whole team, is a backbone for the plant. Papa Tel is a real value added to the team. He handles a lot of small components and his work in refurbishing the parts is 100 percent excellent work.”
Papa Tel prides himself on maintaining a solid routine and reliable schedule and he likes the accountability of showing up to work every single day. Like clockwork, he wakes up and makes it to
work exactly on time. He works steadily throughout the day. Then goes home to do his evening routine. The next day, he does it all over again.
“He is steady, here every day faithfully, unless it’s some scheduled leave,” said Dan Peterson, PEI Branch head. “When he is here, he is always working. He is exactly what you’d like all of your employees to be like. He’s an excellent role model. We know that we can always rely on him and he will do all that he can.”
Papa Tel was widowed in 2003 when his wife of 47 years, Angelika, passed away. Concerned that grief and boredom might lead him to become lazy and complacent, he decided that he’d just like to keep working.
“I like what I do,” he said. “I enjoy working, and the routine of it all. More importantly, though, I know that what we do here is important. We have to make sure that every piece of equipment we touch goes back out in a condition that is safe for those on the front lines. Anything less is unacceptable. Their lives depend on it.”
He explained that pilots are excellent at piloting aircraft, and Marines may be trained to operate Logistics Vehicle Systems and Heavy High Mobility Trucks. However, it is the crew chiefs and the aircraft mechanics, the flight engineers, and heavy mobile equipment mechanics who ensure that the equipment is safe for operation. A responsibility he does not take lightly.
Papa Tel is the proud father of 10 children, one of whom died at birth. The others live in various parts of California, Colorado, and Missouri. He is also a proud grandfather of 18 grandchildren and great grandfather to 10 great-grandchildren.
“People often ask me why I don’t go off and travel, maybe revisit places I’ve once been to see how it’s changed or to reminisce,” he said. “Why? No one I knew would still be there, and everything would either be gone or changed so much that I wouldn’t recognize it.”
Although he did enjoy visiting his family’s old stomping grounds in South Dakota. In North Dakota, he even found an old homestead of President Theodore Roosevelt.
“They’ve built a little town there now, and there’s a little loop you can drive around to see everything,” he said. “But you can’t go over 20 miles per hour. Can you imagine? Twenty miles per hour!”
When able, he would prefer a simpler life these days of just plugging along in his faithful routine, and visit his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren on weekends or holidays.
“I’ve been all over the world,” Papa Tel said. “I’ve served in San Antonio, Georgia and Moody Air Force Base, Germany, Louisiana, Germany again, George again. I’ve been to Thailand twice, then back to George. I retired from the Air Force out of Texas, then my wife and I moved our family back here to San Bernardino. Oh, and I’ve been to Saudi Arabia, too. I’m good now with where I am right here.”
He has fond memories, loving family, friends who treat him like family, and coworkers he likes working with.
“Why change a good thing?” Papa Tel asked.
| Date Taken: | 03.28.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 04.01.2019 16:07 |
| Story ID: | 316466 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS L, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 150 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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