I was born and raised in Otterbein, Indiana, and graduated high school in 1968.  I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1969 and attended a service school for 52 weeks to become an electronics technician on communications equipment. 

In 1972 I was stationed aboard the USS Blue Ridge LCC-19, which was an amphibious communications, command and control ship which served as the Flag Ship to the commander and staff of the United States 7^th Fleet / CTF-76.  I did a second West Pac and we spent time working on several amphibious training operations with our allies (Korea, Japan, Australia, etc.) and again spent time in the Gulf of Tonkin.

My final West Pac started in the fall of 1974 and ended in June of 1975. During this period, we conducted a few exercises. The two most people would recognize would be Operation Eagle Pull to evacuate the US Embassy and Staff in Cambodia, and Operation Frequent Wind, which was the evacuation of the US Embassy in Saigon.

The summer of 1975 I left the USS Blue Ridge to attend a one-year advanced electronics school in San Diego, and in 1976 I was assigned to shore duty at Great Lakes as an electronics instructor for 3 years. 

I left the Navy in 1979 and went to work for IBM as a Field Engineer working on mid-range systems in Wisconsin. In 1983 I was offered a transfer to the IBM laboratory located in Boca Raton, Florida to work with the team developing the Personal Computer. I earned a B.S. in Business Management in 1994, and IBM moved the development team to RTP in 1995. I spent the rest of my career working on various projects in development, and after 35 years retired as a Program Director in the Server Hardware Development team.

For me, going into the military in 1969 from a small town in a rural farming community proved to be one of the best decisions I could have made. I am a life member of the VFW and proud to belong to VFW Post 8466.