Luck May Fail Survivor of U.S. Defense Cuts : Economy: Rich Long will be out of work by summer unless he can find another job. His department made it through other hard times--but now it’s being disbanded.

Rich Long has been lucky. So far.

Over the years, he has seen hundreds of co-workers lose their jobs at Lockheed Sanders Inc., a defense contractor. Through the layoffs, through the early retirements, he has been a survivor.

“Up until now,” he said.

“It doesn’t look good for much longer. I’m walking a very thin line. . . . I’ll be lucky to make it till the summer unless I can find another job in house.”

Long is not alone in treading that thin line. All around the country, thousands of workers who have held on through the depths of the recession are now faced with yet another threat to their livelihoods--new layoffs that have hit defense contractors and other major companies.

For the last 13 years, the 37-year-old Long has worked for Lockheed Sanders, which produces radar and infrared systems used to throw heat-seeking missiles off-target.

Company spokesman Marvin Braman said Lockheed Sanders cut its work force by 2,000 between 1989 and 1991; 600 were laid off, while the other reductions came from an early retirement incentive program and through attrition.

Since 1991, the work force has remained stable at 5,000 but employees come and go depending on the skills that are needed, Braman said. The company is working on as many as 1,500 contracts at any given time.

“Many of these employ relatively small numbers of people and are of relatively brief duration, so we’re constantly engaged in the process of matching skills with the work force requirement,” he said.

This is a very logical, very technical explanation for Long’s very human predicament.

“The bottom line is they’re still trimming the work force,” Long said. “They’re trying to pick who they think are the more valued people, and it’s kind of a kick in the pants.”

On April Fool’s Day, Long’s boss told him and other equipment repair and maintenance workers that their department was being disbanded. The company said it would try to place Long and his co-workers elsewhere.

“The manager said there was the possibility of upcoming layoffs and if we’re not placed within two months, perhaps more, then we’ll probably be laid off,” Long said.

“I just wish it would be over. I wish I would know I’m being placed somewhere else or that I’m going to be laid off. It’s no scarier than it has been. There have been rumors of the department being disbanded. While this confirms it, it’s still more of the same, the uncertainty of it all. I want to find some security in my life.”

He has watched, over the years, as friends and neighbors faced the ax, watched their shellshocked faces after they heard the news.

“We know so many people that have been laid off and so many people that don’t have a job anymore,” he said. “Some people get jobs right away. Some people haven’t had a job for 2 1/2 years.”

These have been sleepless nights and stressful days. He and his wife, Rilla, have two daughters, ages 6 and 12. They have a 30-year mortgage on a 110-year-old house with 10 rooms and a barn spread over more than an acre of land. Mortgage payments and taxes total about $790 a month.

“The worst part about it is just not knowing for sure what’s going to happen,” Rilla Long said. “He survived eight other layoffs, but this is a little bit different in that there is at this point a definite end to the job that he now holds.”

Long earns $32,000 a year; Rilla works part time at a preschool day care center for handicapped children, earning about $8,000 a year. They are making plans even before he is laid off, just as many of his friends did.

The Longs are fortunate. They have some savings and a small inheritance set aside that they could survive on for at least a year or so, providing there is no major catastrophe.

“That is for the children’s future,” Long said. “If I used it, I’d have to start all over again.”

They are looking at other options, including turning their hobby of collecting swords, baskets and brass, among other items, into a small antique business. A Sunday ritual for Long is going through the newspapers looking for work and sending out resumes.

“Over the years, I’ve had many jobs,” he said. “I could go back to driving school buses for a hundred bucks a week if I had to in order to bring something in. But I think after 13 years of my life and this career, to see it just disappear is very painful.”

So he has tried to find another job with the company, but has been spurned three times. Even worse, he lost out to a friend with whom he has worked for five years.

“I think it stinks,” he said. “It’s not really friendly competition. I fear if I don’t get this job, I may be on the streets in a few months. He had a secure job but he was trying to better himself. I don’t hold it against him.”

And he tries to avoid bitterness.

“It hurts when you think of the sacrifices you’ve made over the years and it’s hard to fight back and regain your self-esteem after the initial hit. There’s a lot of deep depression for a while. You say, ‘I’m better than this. I deserve better than this and I will survive.”’