Spent 20+ years in the military but started out a bit rough.
I joined the Military when i was in high school at 17. I was a "problem child" too much parting and girls. (me with the food in my mouth)
I was born in a small town in the Upper Midwest. Think less than 1000 people and no stoplights. Lots of Dairy Farms & Cows.
I played some Basketball and 4 years of Football. However i got in quite a bit of trouble . Nothing major just drinking and driving crazy.
I wanted to get out, but i did not know what i wanted to do. I did not have the grades for college. (me in blue jacket)
We built a drinking "Shack" out in the Forrest. We took lumber from everywhere. Construction sites, old barns. We wired it with electricity from a couple car batteries. That one of our guys would take home and charge every week or two.
We got glass sliding doors from my parents house when they renovated and could not use the old ones. We had a cooking stove and a few beds on the second story loft for obvious reasons :)
Did a few years as enlisted while going to night school. Applied for the Green to Gold scholarship and was accepted. I was stationed in Alaska at the time and did a road trip to Florida from Fairbanks AK. Picture is parking lot of Summit Lake Lodge Alaska. We would fly there for lunch from Fort Wainwright. I was the Crew Chief.
When i got to Florida I was an ROTC cadet.
Joined a Fraternity. Theses guys were great. Not a huge party frat but when i was getting out of the military several of them sent me messages offering me jobs. A great experience for me. Took me out of my military mindset when i was getting into college.
Got so tired of Florida Spring Break my roommates and I drove almost 30 hours to go skiing at Taos New Mexico. (Red Pants)
My Junior year of ROTC/College I was accepted into flight school and did well enough at flight school to qualify to fly AH64 Attack Helicopters.
My time in the military is a whole subject i will cover in a different post. So please follow :)
I deployed on a Foreign Military Adviser Team to Baghdad during the "Surge" .
It was a high stress environment. I made a promise to myself that when i got out I would travel and see some of the nicer parts of the world. I moved or deployed about every 18 months for the last 12 years of my time in the Army. I retired almost 2 years ago and now i am trying to live the dream .... or at least the plan i made at 1am while sitting in a vehicle in southern Baghdad back in the day.
So here i am. I have taken trips to Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Italy, Thailand, Malaysia, & the Philippines. I will cover each of these locations in later posts.
I am heading back to Italy in a few weeks. I have had a couple wives and a few girlfriends.. We will see where we go from here.
We all chose our own paths in life by the decisions we make every day. This is my path. You are welcome to come along.