Education:

Many professional and leadership courses throughout my military and civilian careers

Central College, Embry riddle Aeronautical University, Allied American University, Grantham University

BS Business graduating with honors from Grantham

In process of completing my MBA through Grantham

What fills my hours:

Now that I am retired from the Army after 35+ years of service, my wife and I enjoy spending time at our home in Minnesota raising our great-granddaughter Allyssa Joanne and the peace and solitude of living in the country. As much as I would have loved staying in the Army for more years, they just didn’t want guys like me because we are far too expensive.  After spending most of my adult years in my beloved Texas we decided that we had enough of the hot weather, hurricanes and flooding.  I miss spending weeks at a time in rented beach houses on Surfside beach, saltwater fishing. I enjoy spending my mornings with my wife Shirley and our three dogs.  While the weather is nice, we enjoy watching the wildlife and birds hitting our feeders, relaxing in the pool and hot tub.  I also enjoy working on our RV and an older Jeep Cherokee that I am trying to restore. Being we have an outdoor boiler I often find myself struggling having to cut wood but at least its good for me.  I also stay busy working on various projects around the house and property including putting the finishing touches on a cabin I built in the back yard or as I should call it my wife’s she shed.  When completed it will offer he a nice break away from me, the kid and the dogs.

Family:

I met my wife Shirley back in 1987 while I was working as an electrician in Houston.  She had two daughters from a previous marriage, but both lived elsewhere with her ex.  Both girls had families themselves and their children ended up having families as well.  At this point, we have 7 grandchildren and 6 greatgrandchildren with one on the way.  Due to unfortunate circumstances, our one granddaughter ended up leaving her firstborn with Shirley and I to raise.  We have been raising Allyssa Joanne as our own since 2009, shortly after she was born. Poor thing struggles with her autism, but we are hoping that everything works out for her in her future life. 

Awards: Multiple Army and Guard awards, certificates, campaign medals and so on. 

After Central: After failing at business with the Pub, I decided to change direction and join the Army with the hopes of becoming an aviator.  After going through all the paces my eyes ended up failing me so I did the best job that I could as an Aircraft Missiles Systems Repairer on attack helicopters.  I started out with AH-1 Cobras (various models) and ended with AH-64 D Apache helicopters.  After 6 years of active duty I got out and decided to try civilian life….and hated it.  I had just met my wife at the time and had gotten tired of being laid off as a union electrician but instead of returning to active duty I signed up with the Texas Army National Guard and shortly thereafter was hired as a fulltime civil service technician performing the same duties that I did while active.  Despite hearing all of the nightmare statements about the National Guard I found my self happy with my decision.  I ended up as a fulltime Integrated Electronics System Supervisor in charge of 10 Avionics and Electronics Systems mechanics that performed work on a variety of Army aircraft including UH-1 Huey, UH-60 Blackhawks, OH-58 Kiowa Warriors and an occasional visiting aircraft that experienced issues while at Ellington Field. On one occasion we had to assist with President Bush’s helicopter and on another occasion with the Presidential Limo.  My guys and gal were highly intelligent and motivated techs that made my job all so easy.  On the Army side of the house I ended up becoming a “walking warrant” officer because of my expertise with aviation electronics systems.  When I took the position and made it through WOCD (really sucks) I thought that my assignment would allow me to focus on working with soldiers in troubleshooting and maintaining aircraft but instead I found myself becoming a Detachment Commander, in charge of 100 soldiers, an assignment that lasted over 12 years and multiple deployments.  My biggest accomplishment was that I never lost a soldier in combat nor suffered serious job-related injuries despite the fact we dealt with multiple munitions.  Unfortunately, though I did lose many friends over the years with the last ones losing their lives in a crash of an AH-64 in the Houston Ship Channel just after I retired. 

Phi Delta Tau Memories:

Pledging, eating an onion on hell night amongst other delicious items, Christmas parties, Homecoming along with decorating the house, Tulip Time, Non-alcoholic parties in the basement because we all knew that alcohol was strictly forbidden, hanging out at the Grill and shooting pool with Bruce Heston (pool shark), warming up with non-alcoholic brass monkey while watching our national champion football team going undefeated, loading up non-alcoholic beer into our golf carts and playing golf in Oskaloosa, spring vacation trips to Florida in Bob Mauer’s red panel wagon, off shore fishing trips, kidnapping an active and taking him to Mt. Rushmore, Happy Days and Mash night, frying up a bunch of Rocky Mountain oysters provided by Randy Arp (Found out after we ate them as to what they really were), pig roasts, bon fires at Red Rock Lake and many more wonderful times.