Who are YOU?

Some tough acts to follow...was brought up in the country, helped build a couple barns, raised livestock, had a fairly good sized garden...but after graduation I went into the Marines for a bit over 13 years. Personnel draw-downs closed the door for re-enlistment in my field. So I got out and opened an auto repair shop in a rural area of Louisiana, but the self-employment taxes were a killer. Been at a similar shop (without the paperwork headaches) for the past 19 years.
I have trained and worked S&R K9s and was assistant team commander for a few years. Have served as Vice President, President and Secretary of our local ham radio club, and helped facilitate the relocation and major upgrades of our repeater systems. Stripped our house to the bare studs when we first moved down here, re-wired, re-plumbed, re-roofed, and sheetrocked the building. Been developing our solar system as time & funds permit. Katrina helped nudge my wife along, but she never was against prepping...just more active about it now.
For relaxation I run the sound system for a local cover band, go to the range, or pick through antique stores.
Been married 3 times...first one was good until she died, second didn't last a year, been with current wife just shy of 20 years. I figure this'll be the last one

The view from 500' AGL...

 

I'm a Gator...I do what Gator's do...

Gator's eat everything that get's in their way...

Don't get in a Gator's way...!

Gator goes where the odds are in his favor...!

 

Your in the Flordia Parish's ?

 

Yup...St Tammany

 

Ahh...Going to Sherburne to bang a gong in the morning..and you ?

 

Got the whole week off...and a list of honey-doos to fill it! Pressure wash the house/drive. Replace an ac unit that isn't quite right (then fix it). Put some more security cameras up...and help the neighbor down the road decide on a system for his place. then in the afternoon... LOL
Just staying busy...

eta: Honey Island is only open Fri, Sat, Sun for "music" practice.

 

Hahaha..Honey Island...That is a world into itself...Been there a couple of time's...

Good Luck with the honey doo's...

I put up a Moltrie with a 4.0 gig card..Good for over 4K picture's...

I catch all kind's of ''Mullet's''...Get on my end ..Look me up !

 

Great story Right hand!
I know that battle and continue to fight it.
I've always been one who likes things that go fast, things that go boom and things that make a lot of noise!
I think it makes us stronger women. I can fit in with any group, but playing outside with the boys has always been my favorite!
You give me hope that one day, I will find me a country man who can accept all of that and my little shoe addiction! lol.

 

I thought "shoe addiction" was standard equipment with the double X chromosome.

 

My shoe collection is a little bit bigger than most..

 

I was raised in the backwoods of Georgia. I joined the Marine Corps at 17, and a whole new world opened up to me. The Marine Corps sent this wide eyed, naïve country boy to a school in California to learn Arabic. After a year and a half of studying a language (and not being told why I was studying it), I was sent to another school; this one at a small remote Air Force base in West Texas, where I learned about the world of intelligence, intercepting communications, and about something called the Central Security Service (CSS).

The CSS, of which few have ever heard, is an organization which provides military resources for the National Security Agency (NSA). This arrangement allows NSA to utilize vast worldwide military resources, without the personnel appearing in Agency manpower reports, and without the utilized funds appearing in NSA’s already classified budget.

An idea of how lucrative this relationship can be is brought out by considering SSESs on Naval vessels. Almost every US Naval ship has onboard a Ship’s Signal Exploitation Space (SSES). That space is crewed by Navy and Marine Corps personnel, trained to intercept, translate, and analyze communications. Special antennas on the ship are dedicated to the interception of a wide range of communications. The SSES has a primary duty in wartime of the interception and exploitation of enemy communications, in an effort to protect the ship and task group. In peacetime however (and at times, during wartime), the SSES is directly tasked by NSA/CSS. The busy little bees inside the SSES constantly collect tasked communications, as the ship travels the world’s oceans, feeding their stream of data back to NSA. Multiply the effort of that one ship by all the ships in the US Navy, add to it the Signals Intelligence (SigInt) resources of the Service Cryptologic Elements (SCEs) of the US Army and US Air Force (which are vast), and you begin to get a picture of what a force multiplier the CSS is for the NSA.

Anyway, at that little Air Force base, in a remote corner of the West Texas desert, I learned the trade that I would pursue for something over two decades. I roamed the world, almost always the dusty, disagreeable places, either in uniform or out of uniform, plying my trade; feeding information up the chain, ultimately to national level decision makers. Sometimes, our little group would be on a lonely mountaintop, sometimes on a ship, sometimes in an aircraft, sometimes in a hotel room, and sometimes in vast high tech operations centers. Always, was the secrecy that came with the job. You never told someone what you did for a living, if they were outside of the “community.” I’ve found that telling people that you are an “Administrative Specialist” usually stops further questioning. They usually reply “Oh,” in a knowing way, and then change the subject.

I married a little Texas girl about sixteen years ago, who came with either considerable baggage, or considerable assets, depending upon ones view – horses, sheep, goats, rabbits, dogs, etc. She had a few more critters than Noah had on his Ark. Since then, we’ve lost some and added some, and still have quite a menagerie.

I ended up my military career by teaching at that same desolate little Air Force base in West Texas; teaching the same courses that I had sat through so many years before. I retired from the military ten years ago, and we moved to North Carolina. You don’t know the definition of interesting until you move an entire zoo halfway across the country. My truck had seventeen cats and a rabbit in the back, and was pulling a trailer containing two horses, two sheep and a goat. My wife was driving a truck with a sick Rottweiler lying in the seat beside her, a sick kitten in her lap, and a cockatiel in a cage perched on the back of the seat. The truck bed was filled with animal feed and such. The small horse trailer attached to her truck held six more dogs. When we halted at rest stops, we got a lot of attention. Just thinking about moving now, ten years later, still sends shivers up my spine.

After retirement, I went back to what I did as a kid – jewelry repair. My father ran a repair shop, and I practically grew up there. My wife had just finished training as a gemologist before we were married, so the two skill sets dove-tailed nicely.

I don’t know if it was the years of working inside of buildings without windows, where the “need to know” was always the watchword, that determined my personality; or whether it just nurtured my natural inclinations; but I’m a bit of a loner, except with my immediate family. I don’t socialize much. I have a lot of acquaintances, but few true “friends.” Large groups of people cause me to start looking for a quiet corner, or a door to the outside.

I’m generally pretty quiet, but stupidity and bullying gets my back up. I can’t stand either one. Usually, it was one or the other that got me into hot water when I was in the military. There were times that I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut. I have several pair of cammies with the rank insignia sun-bleached into the collars because of one such incident. Apparently, you’re not supposed to tell people that they are stupid a$$holes, even if they are.

When I was much younger, I was very sure of many things. My views were absolute and unquestioned. It took years of contact with others, and a lot of personal maturity, to begin to understand the nuances of so many of the complicated issues that I once took to be so simple; and to understand that there are always two sides to every issue.

I’m very much into moderation and toleration these days. I detest bigotry, and hate; and the self-imposed ignorance that causes both. I hate to sound like John Lennon, but, “can’t we all just get along?”

These days, I work more than I want to, and try to keep up with a hyper-high-energy four year old son (I apparently didn’t learn the first time around – my other two are grown, and I have grandkids older than my son). There are never enough hours in the day, and I never have all the time that I want to spend here on the Survival Monkey Forum. The wisdom and intelligent discourse here, paired with my insatiable curiosity, always brings me back for more.

 

Wow! You have a damn good story!
Ive always been curious about that kind of work. If you ask me, that's a pretty badass job!

 

Hi, you can call me Witch Doctor 01 my old call sign….
I’m a military brat was raised mostly overseas when I was younger, England, Greece, with multiple stops along the way…

We were a large family so food prepping/raising your own food was a daily staple…
My dad taught us how to shoot at a young age… there are three times to shoot… food , protection, and target practice… I remember when I brought my first kill to show how good a shot I was… an English sparrow… Dad asked how I planned on cooking it… I asked what he meant… and was informed that it wasn’t paper, and didn’t attack me so I must have been hunting… I guess I was slow cause I remember eating more than one sparrow the first year I had my gun…

Any way moving along…was originally I planned on being a Chopper pilot in Nam… but uncle sugar changed the enlistment requirements on me.. (4 years to six) and I decided to get a college degree… was an alternate to the AF Academy … but didn’t get in so I attended ROTC completed my degree early and got a waiver to be commissioned…. Started as a Navigator until I was grounded following a severe neck injury… worked as a courier for a while then off to more school Aircraft maintenance, and munitions maintenance, and EOD finally ended up working with A-10’s… in Lovely Louisiana at England airplane patch… Was there for several years when I was coming back with some friends from the Bayou Country when we were in a car accident with a deputy sheriff… which ended up with me being medically retired….

Since then I’ve done many jobs…Gun smithing, HazMat consulting, anti-drug work for the feds, LEO accreditation, systems analyst and statistical analysis, research and planning for local colleges…. I’m a certified state disaster planner, first responder instructor, and former basis HazMat instructor, CAP rated observer and SAR ground team director and sit on several emergency planning groups in my county and region.

I have a wonderful wife of 26 years, a daughter up in Indian country (Boston, Mass), a son in Oklahoma City, OK) and a son who backpacks around the world with the 10th Special forces…. and fortunately a "Baby" Brother who is also a Monkey and has my back the same way I have his...

 

It was a great job, all things considered. I was actually supposed to be an Air Traffic Controller in the Marines, but was pulled into the Cryptologic field due to scores on an aptitude test administered in basic training. Apparently, their battery of tests could tell if someone was well suited for that type of job.

I added it up once and determined that ten years of my military career was spent either as a student or an instructor in one school or another. I was in the military for almost two years before I even knew what my job was to going to actually entail. All I had done to that point was to go to school. When they finally lifted the curtain of secrecy, you sat and said "Ah, so that's why I've been studying all of these odd things." It was fairly ironic since one reason I had joined the Marines was that I was tired of school, and wanted to do something different.

The best part of the job was the travel; and being able to know things that others were not able to know. Of course, you couldn't tell anyone about what you knew, without going to jail for a long time, so you would just sit and smile enigmatically when certain world affairs topics came up in discussion. This only convinced others in the room that you were either a grinning idiot, or that you were drunk, again.

The worst part of the job was, again, the travel; and learning things that you wished that even you were not able to know. Intelligence gathering is great, but the uses to which that intelligence is put is not always a great thing. Targeting terrorist entities is a win-win. There really isn't a downside. Targeting State entities can be another matter.

While intercepting communications, you often get to know your targets personally. For example, you are targeting a military Air Defense site. You may have listened in on the phone conversations of the individuals stationed at that site for months. You hear them when they pick up the phone at two in the morning to sneak in a call to their wife. You may know a particular soldier's name; maybe you even know him by his voice. We'll call him Fareed. You know his wife's name, and his children's names. You know that he has leave approved for two months hence, and that he is delighted that he will be able to make his two-year-old daughter's birthday party. You know that he loves his daughter, and misses her terribly. His wife has even put her on the phone a few times, and you've heard her voice while she speaks to her daddy.

You also know that tonight, your country's strike command is attacking that particular Air Defense site. Your job was to provide them exact geolocation data with which to program the missiles, and tonight your job is to listen to the site's communications until the missiles start impacting. You know that Fareed will not live to take his leave in two months time. You know that he has heard his daughter's voice for the last time.

There was a definite downside to the job. Which was why, when my time in the military was up, I didn't just hang up my uniform, put on a suit, and slide into the same job with the Agency that I was doing in the military. I'd had enough. So now, I do the gentleman-farmer routine, and work on jewelry. My past job was at times a lot of fun, and other times, not so much. My life isn't as exciting as it once was, and I'm good with that.

 

I was a simple country boy growing up on the farm. Always had a thing for Ambulances and firetrucks. As soon as I turned 16 I joined the volunteer fire dept. By the time I was 18 I was an EMT, by 19 an A-EMT-CC, then by 20 a Paramedic. Couldnt buy a beer but I could push narcs, perform an IO, or a chest decompression....go figure. Then I decided to hit the big city with my newly earned Paramedic card and went to work in a couple of NY's larger cities (not NYC). Did that for about 13 years. After 10 years I became a Supervisor. With the new title comes an unexpected side effect. You get to respond to every "bad call" that is handed to one of your units on your shift. As an added bonus, I was also the 3rd shift flycar (which means you get to meet up with other units when they have a bad one). The last three years were the worst. One day when responding to a domestic I was told PD was on scene and it was secure. I rolled up to one patrol car with no officers around. I watched a feller close fist punch a young girl in the face on the front porch. I ran up to him and square bale threw his ass off the front porch. The officers came back around from the rear of the house to see me kicking the guy in the ribs. Needless to say I had some splainin to do. Since I couldnt come up with a better answer than, "Sumbitch deserved it and my only regret is that those cops ordered me to stop", I was given two options. Option A was to work dispatch and go to anger management...option B was to resign. I decided to create option C. Resign, go back home, and teach, so I was a lab instructor for EMT and EMT-I classes. I also co-formed a CISD team that works with the local mental health clinic at the DOH and helps local rural departments deal with bad calls.
After getting back home, I got married to the woman who has been there for me through it all, great and terrible. My best friend and (not to get too mushy) my real soul mate. We bought a house with some land then started poppin out the curtain climbers.
Now, I am again what I was meant to be. A simple country boy. I am still active in Fire/EMS. I am an Executive officer at the local FD as well as an operational officer. I have a great job and my little slice of the American dream. A great little town with honest good people who always come together when things seem their worst. I have my little farm going and the kids love having plenty of animals around.
Overall, with the exception of the anxiety I feel when I read the newspaper, I am an incredibly fortunate and happy guy.

 

Come on, tell the truth. You're writing a sequel to "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Next", and you needed some new material.