Harold Brailey:  

Life I am a retired career soldier who served 20 years as a medic in the U.S. Army. I served as public affairs specialist to Army units to which I was assigned from 1972 to 1988. Since my retirement 18 years ago from the armed forces, I have served as a child protective services specialist in Guadalupe County, Texas, and as a safety officer on oil drilling rigs and construction barges in the Gulf of Mexico, Bahrain and off the coast of Nigeria, West Africa. I also have been the chief operating officer of a skilled home health agency, women’s health boutique and medical clinic, advertising copywriter for a large automobile dealership, evidence photographer for a company that provides security to companies with labor problems, and telemarketer. I was a homeless derelict for almost six years. This was not an experiment to obtain color for a news story, I was the genuine article. In 2004, I overcame a gambling addiction and in 2005, began working as a safety consultant in Nigeria, West Africa. I am the only person I know who went from living on the streets to earning a six-figure income in a period of less than two years. Despite the roller coaster quality of my life, I have always been a writer. I was a stringer for more than 20 years. My news and feature stories appeared in nearly a dozen newspapers, including the Sunday Oklahoman, Lawton Constitution, and Panama Star Herald in Panama City, Panama. In 1999, while homeless, I penned a monthly column for the San Antonio Express-News. I have been twice divorced and have three grown daughters. I live with my trophy bride wife, Rebecca, a former award-winning journalist and novelist and her two sons live near Indianapolis. School My high school years were an awakening. Born and raised in Niantic, which back then was a tiny town, compared with today, I went from a living in a town where I only knew peopel of my own race to attending classes with a multitude of races. I must say, given the fact that I never heard a racist remark uttered by my parents or anyone close to me whose opinions molded my psyche, I was a clean slate when I started attending New London High School. My friends there came from all ethnic backgrounds. I had no preconceived notions about them. I am more grateful for this ...Expand for more