Alex Ross:  

Life In March of 1982 I had to move with my parents to Enid, Oklahoma (guess my dad couldn't find work locally...) That sucked since I didn't graduate with you fine folks...plus I didn't graduate high school at all since the credit structure was far different in Oklahoma. So, I got my GED later after blowing off correspondence courses for my diploma and kicked around Enid for a couple years working at jobs that were kinda fun but not exactly engaging. I did get my scuba diving certification in Oklahoma and took an aircraft mechanics course at the local Vo-Tech. Nah, didn't know what I wanted to be then either... So I decided to join the military in 1986 so I enlisted in the US Navy, slated to go in around my 22nd birthday. Got set up with a blind date (by my mom!) with one of her co-workers, Rita Beals. I felt I had nothing to lose since I was shipping out a month later. Rita and I built our relationship via the US Postal Service throughout the 5 years I was in the Navy. Saw a lot of the world I never would have seen otherwise: Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt (including the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx) Turkey, Italy, Sicily (saw Mount Vesuvius from a distance), France, Israel (including the Holy Land: Gethsemane, Jerusalem, etc.), all around the Caribbean (no pirates~HA!), took a ...Expand for more