Just Me

I was born in Milwaukee, WI and when I was two years old my mother and father were divorced and my mother moved back to where she was born and raised in Pound, VA. I don’t remember much about my father we did not get to see him much. I have two sisters one was still born and is buried on a hill some were on Mill Creek Road in Pound, VA. The only one that knows where her grave is is my father but he passed away at the age of 36, my other sister is Pat and my brother is Mike. I went to school in Pound, VA in the coal fields of Southwest Virginia a lot of poor people grew up in that town. The main source of money in Wise County, VA is in Coal as they say it keeps the lights on.
We lived in the house my grandmother built and she was a jack of all trades and a dang good cook too. As I was growing up I was treated bad and made fun of all the time, I had to wear hand me down cloths all the time. I did not mine the cloths. What bothered me was the fact I was made fun of all the time, I was called all kinds of names and was beaten on all the time. We were poor and on food stamps, my mother worked two jobs to feed us but was still poor, I had a hard time in school and my mother would not work with me. As a child I had a lot of problems I was always behind in class and put in Special ED classes when it came to education I was left behind. MY Grandmother told me that my mother did not want me because I was too much like my father and she hated my father. Life was rough growing up in my house my mother never spent any time with me to make sure I got a education I did not get out of high school till I was 21 I dropped out of school and went in the Army.
1 July 1978 I was at Fort Knox, KY taking 17 weeks of Basic Training in the hottest time of the year it was not fun but I least I was away from my mother and the coal mines of Southwest Virginia. I’m still in the Army and getting ready to retire in February 2013 with over 35 years of service. I have told my mother I have 3 years of collage and 3.6 grade averages but to this day my mother still says I’m not smart enough to be in Collage let alone have a 3.6 grade average. All my life I have been put down by my mother no matter what I achieve in my education, in the Army, and in life it will never be good enough for her.
The things I have done in the Army I have done Border Patrols on the East German Border for over four years, I was a Mechanic on tanks and all kinds of Army equipment. I’m licensed for about 30 different types of equipment from a M1 Abrams Battle Tank to a Golf Cart I have been all over the world; I have over 250 Soldiers under me at any given time. I been signed for over 2 Billion Dollars of equipment and I have been in charge of over 200 missions or more, I have planed over 600 missions in my 35 years of service in the Army. I believe I have proven myself many times over that I’m a very smart person and I have accomplished a lot in my career in the Army