soon after his marriage, he took a job as a machinist at the garrett airesearch facility in phoenix, arizona, where he worked for 15 years. he and his family moved to lorraine's hometown of tuba city, arizona, on the navajo nation in 1963, where he joined the navajo tribal police force, which he served in for three years. he then became a legal advocate for d.n.a. legal services, a nonprofit law firm. he retired from the organization after 23 years. sandoval then worked as an interpreter for the navajo legal courts for an additional sixteen years.