I joined the U.S. Army on April 27, 1987. I completed basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, also affectionately known as Fort Lost in the Woods. Fort Leonard Wood, covers 71,000 acres of the Mark Twain National Forest in the Missouri Ozarks, southwest of St. Louis. After completion of basic training, I completed AIT (Advanced Individual Training) at Fort Lee in Virginia where I became a Quartermaster and Weapons Specialist. I have a small photo gallery with pictures from both basic training and AIT. After completion of AIT, I was assigned to the 401st Military Police Company at Fort Hood, Texas. At that time, Fort Hood was the biggest military installation in the Free World. While assigned to the 401st, I was deployed to Honduras from February 1988 to August 1988 and was a participant in Operation Golden Pheasant. I was also deployed to Panama from August 1989 through January 1990 and was a participant in Operation Just Cause.

I'm very proud to be a part of the 401st Military Police Company and the role we played in operation Just Cause. It was an honor to liberate the good people of Panama from the cruel reign of Manuel Noriega, but that didn't come without a price. We lost U.S. soldiers during the invasion and one hero I knew well, PFC Scott Roth. I took many pictures before, during and after the invasion which were all confiscated by the military before I left the country. We were informed that they were to be reviewed and any pictures that did not contain sensitive material would be returned to us. To this day, I have never received any of these pictures back. I have a total of three pictures of my time spent in Panama and I am only in one of them, the picture you see to your right.