INTENT Is to Retrain Jobless Defense Experts : Engineers: Project at CSUF will teach them how to apply their skills to environmental work.

They are experts in defense and aerospace engineering, some working in the field for 25 to 30 years. One man’s last job was running engine tests on DC-10s during the Persian Gulf War. Another worked with the Hubble Space Telescope just last year.

Today, all are unemployed.

On Monday, they went back to college, attending an orientation at Cal State Fullerton for a federally funded training program they hope will give them an edge in the shrinking job market.

Called Project INTENT--Integrated Environmental Training Program for Defense Industry Engineers, the $1.1-million program was launched by the Clinton Administration in October as part of its technology reinvestment program.

Project INTENT will retrain 90 local unemployed defense engineers, teaching them how to apply their skills with an environmental firm. The 33 engineers--20 from Orange County--who attended Monday’s orientation have been chosen for the first year of the program.

Beginning today they will attend classes at Cal State Fullerton for six months, then take an internship with an environmental company for another six months. Project INTENT differs from other retraining programs, university officials said, because it offers on-the-job training.

If the program is successful, university officials believe it will become a model for the country. This is the only federally supported defense retraining program being run out of a university that combines classroom work with an internship.

“We in defense manufacturing and aerospace industry have sensed a special loss of identity,” program coordinator Dale Swanson, who is also a former defense engineer, told the participants. “Our situations are complicated by the fact that we’re going through a weak economy . . . (Project INTENT) has the potential to provide you with a new beginning . . . and the opportunity to get back to the work forces.”

For the out-of-work engineers, Swanson’s words are the first good news they’ve heard in a long time. According to Cal State Fullerton’s economists Robert Kleinhenz and Anil Puri, 27,000 defense-related jobs in Orange County were cut between 1987 and 1991. Between 11,600 and 17,500 additional defense-related jobs are expected to be scuttled by the end of 1995, they said.

Project INTENT cannot possibly make a dent in the statistics, but what it can do is retrain 90 engineers and help them secure internships in environmental-related companies that could result in permanent hires, Swanson said.

In his 14 years in the aerospace industry, Bob Weinheimer of Costa Mesa has been laid off on three occasions. It’s time that he and others moved on, he said.

“The environment is the next challenge for engineers, who are problem-solvers,” Weinheimer said. “As engineers, we’ve done some things in the past that have hurt the environment so it’s only natural that we fix it.”

Although those who run Project INTENT emphasized that they make no promises that the displaced engineers will find permanent jobs, the participants said they are optimistic that the program will open doors for them.

“I expect that I will find a decent, well-paying job after this,” said Richard Stamberg, 50, of Fullerton.

Laura Hamer, 47, of Buena Park, said she believes the program will achieve the “bottom line”--get her a job.

“That’s why we’re here,” she said. “We can make power statements about this field and that field, but the nitty-gritty is, we want a job.”