I was born in 1967 in Topeka, KS, and eventually made my way down to Tulsa, Oklahoma where I graduated from Eastwood Baptist High School in 1985. Though I was an under achiever in school, I ended up with a myriad of scholarship offers due to my high scores on the PSAT, SAT, and ACT tests. Some of my more notable accomplishments during my youth were: National Merit Scholarship Winner All-State Football Honorable Mention “Total Release Award” from my football coach for giving 110% on every play Various Academic competition awards Unfortunately, I was foolish when I finally graduated from high school. Rather than going to college, I enlisted in the US Navy so that I could see the world. During my six years in the Navy, I earned my promotions to E-5 in just over three years, and had just taken the exam for E-6 when I got my honorable discharge. During my stay in the Navy, I visited over 50 countries including such exotic locations as Tasmania, Singapore, Thailand, Panama, Guatemala, Guantanamo Bay Cuba (well, not all were exotic), and of course many others. My first ship was officially home ported in Key West, Florida, but the only time I saw Key West was when my flight passed over the Florida Keys en route to Panama City, Panama. Panama was a very interesting place to be during the time I was there, made much more interesting by the fact that four days after I arrived, Manuel Noriega did his famous dance and took over the country. When my time in Panama ended, I transferred to the USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19), home-ported in the beautiful city of Yokosuka, Japan. The Blue Ridge was best known as the Admiral’s Limousine as where the Admiral wanted to go, we generally went, showing the flag. While on the Blue Ridge, I got to see many of the more exotic cities in Asia, including a historic port visit to Shanghai, China. Shanghai was also an interesting city. On my first night of liberty in Shanghai, while I was wandering the streets with some friends, it seemed that every time we stopped for more than five seconds, a small crowd of Chinese would gather around us, eager to see those foreign sailors in their dress white uniforms. Inevitably, there would be a gentleman come to us, and tell us in fluent English his story of fighting beside the Americans as part of the Flying Tigers back during the initial part of WW2. This was a glimpse into the soul of a very proud and ancient culture, a glimpse I will never forget. On my third day in Shanghai, and my second day of liberty, I was disappointed to learn that liberty call had been canceled except for scheduled tours. It seems that there had been an incident in the Tiananmen Square in Beijing, and the Chinese were afraid to allow us off the ship “for our own safety”. This was a glimpse into the soul of a very paranoid culture, and this glimpse as well, I will never forget. After Shanghai, the Blue Ridge was scheduled to make yet another historic port visit to the city of Vladivostok, Russia. Unfortunately, we missed that visit, as our ship ended up being deployed to the Persian Gulf where I spent ten months working in the Tactical Flag Command Center for the Commander of all naval forces during Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm. My last posting in the Navy was at USNAF Atsugi, Japan as Security Police. By the time I finished there, I decided it was time to get out. Once I got out of the Navy, I turned around and went straight back to Japan, where I married my fiancé of two years, Maria Yoshihara, and ended up working as a Consultant to Citibank, Japan. While working at Citibank in Japan, I met many wonderful people who I will consider to be life long friends, even if I never get to see you again. Japanese, Malaysian, Bangladeshi, Australian, Indian, Dutch, American... we were a true international crowd. It was in 1994, that my daughter Carole Anne was born. Unfortunately, I then made the biggest mistake in my life. I was offered a position in Citibank New York, to duplicate my work in Japan, but on a Global Scale. The mistake was that I accepted the offer, and initiated a chain of events that even 13 years later, I am paying for. Two years and three months after my initial petition for my wife’s Visa to enter the United States, I resigned my position with Citibank, NA, and moved to Bolivia, South America, to reunite my family. I was fortunate to arrive in Bolivia at a time when the Bolivian government was making great strides in advancing it’s economy, and was in the process of selling off some of it’s assets, including a good portion of the state owned oil company. Amoco won the bid for the purchase of part of the company, and thus, the company of Empresa Petrolera Chaco, SA was created. I once again had a dream job. This job was the best position I have ever held. I was given complete control of the companies nonexistent IT group, and assigned to build a full, nationwide (for Bolivia) IT infrastructure. Working 20 hour days was nothing. Training people who had never used a computer before in the intricacies of Microsoft Office, Windows NT, Ethernet and Fiber networking, and how to use and maintain an infrastructure that would have been impossible in Bolivia only two years before. While in Bolivia, my son Job (pronounced like the man in the Bible) was born. After 3.5 years in Bolivia, the Bolivian economy entered into free fall, and I was forced to come back to the United States, once again, leaving my family behind, still waiting on my wife’s Visa. Once back in the US, I went to work for Raytheon to assist in a large implementation project, and once my six month contract completed, I hopped into a position at CompUSA. Finally, in December of 2001, with the assistance of the Honorable Senator Phil Gramm, my wife was finally granted her Visa, and in January of 2002, my family was finally reunited inside of the United States. The ride to the Dallas airport to pick up my wife was the longest ride I have ever taken, yet seemed to pass as nothing. My family was together. Unfortunately, I was shortly thereafter laid off from CompUSA and ended up moving back to Topeka to live.  Once there, my son was finally able to get into a moderation plan to help us control his Autism.  Since then, it has been a full time task simply keeping food on the table while trying to provide the best possible life for my son. I wish I could do more, but it wasn’t until I recently became a Topeka Capitol Journal blogger that I finally got back to wanting to be the best that I could be.