Jump to: The Early Years | 1983-95 | 1996-99 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008

I joined the Army National Guard in 1982, and shortly after my High School graduation in 1983, I joined the Active Army.

Here's pictures of me taken while I was 'off duty' in the Army... for the "on duty" pictures, check out the "Me in the Army" pages.

I have more... they're in picture books someplace... I'll get all them scanned and up here eventually... but for a while at least, new pictures will pop up here from time to time.

In Germany, I really got into taking pictures.  here, I'm posing with one that I'd just framed.  For fun, I'd develop my own pictures at the Activity Center on post.  They had a pretty decent photo lab, and offered classes and the like.  I had a lot of fun doing that.

Unfortunately, that picture, and others, have been lost over the years.

My Grandfather and I went to Portland Head Light together when I was on leave... it was about the last time we really spent time together before he fell ill.

Here, I'm explaining to him how to center the view by putting the square in the middle of the viewfinder right on my face... he clicked the picture while I was talking.  :-)

Here's me, at Uncle Bobby's first reunion, which he did just about every year since then.  I had just been hit with a water balloon.  :-)

Here's the first picture of my Jeep, "TOBy" (which was an acronym for "The Orange Beast")

This is the first day I had it... I bought it while I was in Germany, and had it shipped to a dealership in Seattle... I went from there, to an ORV park near Ft Lewis to test it out.

It did pretty well, I think.

While I was stationed at Ft Lewis, in Washington, one of the places I went to frequently - about once a month - was Mount Rainier National Park.

Hiking, camping... just driving around.  It was a great place to "get away", and it was fairly close to the post.

One of my closest friends at Ft Lewis, and for quite some time after, was Ron Sanford.  He was from Ohio and he also owned a Jeep. 

He was a fellow Christian, and we thought along the same lines on a lot of things.

We were packed in the same room - we had 4 to a room for most of the time I was at Ft Lewis.  We'd gotten to the post about the same time, and he got out of the Army about a month before I left to go to Korea.  When I returned from there - to the same exact platoon - it wasn't the same.

The last I knew, he owned a gas station in the town he grew up in, and was doing quite well.

It was a rare day that I made it home for Christmas...

I'm at my cousin's house... they were remodeling their living room, and didn't get it done for the Holidays.

A Jeep Cam shot... I'd get bored at night sometimes on long drives, and I'd take a picture of myself.

The coat I'm wearing was made for me during my 6-month stint in Korea.  It was made out of the waterproof bag for the Army Sleeping Bag, and a poncho liner.

Pumping gas, with my broken CB antenna.  It worked better, oddly enough, after it was broke, so I left it that way for quite a while.

Christmas two years in a row... 

 

Playing around at the Saco Aquarium, which wasn't open for all that long, unfortunately.

In the park near Portland Head Light, there used to be a bomb shelter set up in the event of a nuclear war.

A door was left open, so I went in and checked it out... it was in a sad state of disrepair.

A jail?  I shined a flashlight at myself so that the camera would have something to focus on... it was DARK!

They normally kept the area I was in closed... but it was very interesting to walk through the hallways and rooms.

I don't know how many people it was for, but I did notice that there were no stockpiles of food and water... I guess they were counting on having some warning.

Me and my cousin Ray.  He was in the Navy, and we didn't get to see each other very often during our time in the service.

"Thunder in the Dome!"

When the monster trucks came to Tacoma... I was there!

President Bush had roots in Maine... so it was a big deal to the folks around there.

This picture was available at a booth in Old Orchard Beach, a beach town in Maine... they overlaid a digital image of the president, and I stood so that it would look like I was "with" him... :) 

Me and Tammy, my sister, went on a whale watching trip out of Kennebunkport... while waiting for the boat to leave, she took this picture of me.

After Desert Storm, I went to visit some of the folks who wrote to me. 

One of the places I visited was a horse riding camp near Java, New York.  The couple that ran it were Christians, and they'd adopted more than a dozen troubled teens over the years, and helped them the best they could.

I'm not much of a horse person, but this guy was pretty forgiving.

I had a good time helping out at the camp, and I kept in touch with the couple for quite some time, until they closed it and moved several years later.

Here's me with my Ranger.  I ended up not liking this truck very much, unfortunately.  It was too small.

This is shortly after I got out of the Army.  I had a tri-pod in my truck, and I used a timer to take a picture of me as I'm driving.  I was going from Kansas to Oregon, during a snow storm (which basically stretched from Western Kansas to Eastern Oregon), hauling a trailer.  I'd been out of the Army for about a week... I'd stopped shaving 2 days before I got out.

You'll notice that I have my left eye closed, so I could still see after the flash went off.

Jump to: The Early Years | 1983-95 | 1996-99 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008

Added 2007

< Back to Me Pics