Josephp,
I live in WA State, bit north of Tacoma.
Re: S.K.D., there's something vaguely familiar about his syntax in the quote but I'm sure I've never encountered his writing [apparently prolific], it's probably just his adjacent historical time frame to 19th Century writers I'm more familiar with. Some of the titles I saw on Wiki look like they'll have to be investigated.
What is your career plan when you finish the FD training? Do they still require a post training 3 month commitment of work? If so, it's really not a bad way to get your feet wet in the NDT pipe welding field. For the most part the field supervision worked pretty closely with the training instructors to get the new guys put in positions that were challenging but still within their abilities. They won't cut you any slack and expect a journeyman's days work, but if you produce and make x ray at least you don't get stuck on socket welds for the entire time.
BTW. If the work commitment is still in place, don't be surprised when they round up a bunch of the guys in training and tell them, "You're testing on Monday. 2 month shutdown starts Friday". There's a certain kind of psychology involved in the work, call it grace under pressure, it's what separates the wheat from the chaff. It's something you learn to deal with and adapt to. As you overcome it, the only real danger is complacency.
Depending on your goals FD can be a good outfit to stay with. I was never sufficiently "corporate" enough to want to do my entire time of service with one company and was always more interested in finding the best paying/most challenging jobs, plus I wanted to travel so I boomed around for a good 15 years. Picked up a few contacts along the way and a decent understanding of how/where to find the kind of jobs I was looking for. If I can offer any leads in that direction let me know and I'll PM some ideas. In any case, your training will serve you well when you get out there. I'ts always apparent on a job who's gone through a rigorous training regime and who didn't.