I was in from 1996 to 2007 time was spent in Active and Reserve of the U.S. Army. Duty stations include: Germany, Operation Joint Guard (Bosnia), Kuwait 2000 (Operation Desert Spring) also known as the time when USS Cole was bombed, and Iraq 2004 to 2005 (Al Taqqeddum AB) Operation Iraqi Freedom.
as for the Pic it is located in the Members Mugshots thread
BIO:
I was born in Olathe Kansas. I lived there from birth to about 8 and then moved to Topeka, Kansas. 8 years later, I moved back to Olathe. I have two older brothers. One is in the U.S. Air Force. The other works for a Natural Gas Company.
I graduated from Olathe North High School in 1996 and Joined the US Army. I went to basic training at Ft. Leonardwood, Mo and attended Advanced Individual Training (AIT) at Ft. Lee, VA. When I received my orders for my permanent duty station, it was accompanied by N.A.T.O orders. I flew to Germany and two weeks later I found myself in Bosnia refueling Apache Helicopters. Being 18 and the first time away from home besides basic and AIT was bad enough, but being in a Hazardous Fire Zone and not knowing any of my fellow soldiers sucked. During the deployment I decided to get a tattoo while on Pass in Budapest Hungary. I can tell you for sure that alcohol and tattoos do not go together well. THey tend to make you bleed a lot. After living in a tent for 8 months I redeployed back to Germany. The rest of the time in Germany was a blast. Since I had learned how to speak German in high school, getting around was easy for me and I did a lot of traveling around the country.
In 1999, I received orders transferring me back to the US and assigning me of all places, Ft. Riley, Kansas. This time I was refueling the M1A1 Abrams Tank. In 2000, I was again deployed to a Hazardous Duty Zone, in Kuwait. I was in the desert when the USS Cole was bombed and spent about a week traveling and conducting operations to the Iraq border and taking soldiers to the Air strip to get flown to Quatar to guard the embassy.
In 2001, I got out of Active Duty and went into the Army Reserve in Kansas City, Kansas driving 5,000 gal fuel trucks (rolling RPG target) . I drove a fuel truck for a while and then was hired as Law Enforcement Officer in 2002. I was activated in 2003 with the Army Reserve and went to Ft. Leonardwood in Preparation to go to Iraq, however our mission was cancelled and I returned to my job until 2004 when I was activated again and sent to St. Louis, MO in preparation to deploy to Iraq. I was deployed with a unit in a position I was never trained. I received about 3 days of training before deploying ( all classroom work). When I arrived in Kuwait to stage for Iraq I was sent as part of the Advanced Party to get me as much OJT as possible. I was stationed at Al Taqquedum Air Base in Iraq. That is near Fallujah and Ramadi. I conducted approximately 35 combat patrols as convoy security and survived two encounters with Improvised explosive devices and mortar attacks. I redeployed in 2005 and returned to work until I ended my military carreer at the rank of Staff Sergeant in 2007. I received the Meritorius Service Medal, 2 Army Commendation Medals, 3 Army Achievement Medals, 3 Armed Forces Expeditionary Medals and a handful of other medals to include the Meritorius Unit Citation as a member of my unit.
But enough about me,