After being put on the wait list for U of Rhode Island and Oregon State, I quickly accepted going to Florida Institute of Technology for a B.S. in Oceanography.  I turned down a 4 year free ride at Presentation College.  I was the first male to be accepted at the formally all female nursing school.  FIT was 18 males to a female.  I took an elective called Military Science figuring it was dealing with research and was shocked and almost walked out when I found out it was the Army.  I quit crew and joined the rifle team to get off campus. Was second place collegiate shooter freshman year, first place individual at Southeast Invitational in New Orleans junior year, and was overall NRA Florida state champion senior year.  Needing to retake a course to graduate and receive a commission, I was invited to compete against 150 other cadets for one of 11 slots on the First Army rifle team.  Our team came in second at the Camp Perry national championships and I was Collegiate National Champion with the M 14 service rifle for 1976. Went on active duty to pay back a 2 year army scholarship and went to Erlangen Germany as a tank platoon leader.  Was responsible for nuclear release at 1st Armored Division with a Cosmic Top Secret Atomal clearance and back to troops with 37th Armor as platoon leader of tanks and mortars.  I still have a love affair with the M60A2 tank.

When I found out that I would have to take 2 to three years of refresher courses in order to get a MS in Enviro engineering, staying in the Army looked real good. Served on 4 General staffs and 3 company commands.  8 years in West Germany. Met my future wife, a 1 LT in Military Police in the parking lot at 3rd Armor Division Headquarters. Took the money and ran, was a dutiful dependent husband, following her to Jacksonville, FL and back to Germany.  Got called up for the Gulf War and did my duty.  She retired and we started our business of investing in Florida rental properties.  Adopted our daughter when she was 6 months old. Lived in a 3000 sq ft home with bungalow on over an acre on the Intra Coastal Waterway.  Was a multi-millionaire until the divorce and I am now a multi-hundredaire due to my own fault. 

I have been living on a small sail boat for the last 5 years and loving it.  I go to the Bahamas, Florida Keys, and the St Johns river.  Am looking for a Mermaid to go with me through the Antilles to South America.  Having vacationed in 29 countries and 48 states,  I prefer the boat to the 54 ton RV the Army issued me to see Germany in.  My brother-in-law taught me how to hunt on his acreage in northern Wisconsin 5 years ago, and I travel there every fall to visit my mom, sister, nieces, and as many deer and squirrels as I have tags for. I am still a voracious reader, love spear fishing, and have observed the remarkable decline in reefs and fish stocks since I started diving in 1969.  My last performance with the French Horn was in the pit for "How to succeed in business without really trying" in 1983.  The fact that the theatre director threatened to kick me out of her apartment has nothing to do with the 4 months of intense practice to rehabilitate my lip for the performance.    Having skied my way through the Alps and Dolomites, North American slopes and gemutlichkeit have consistently underwhelmed me.