James Conlin:
CLASS OF 1981
San Dieguito High SchoolClass of 1981
Encinitas, CA
James's Story
I recently retired after serving 21 and a half years in the US Army.
I only remember a couple teachers in High School, Mr Madrid who was my US History teacher and surf instructor, and Mrs Hannifin who was my ceramics teacher. Both were pretty good or I wouldn't have remembered them.
There were way too many things I did at school that were wild, but drinking Bicardi 151 in a boda bag and passing it to my friends and telling them it was wine was probably one of the funniest anyway. The wildest things I did I can't disclose here, those of you who know me, probably know what those would be.
Hopefully, my surf buddies from Leucadia, Encinitas, and Cardiff remember me as a person who cared about them and would do anything for them, just as they would do for me.
I am truly happy now as I married an awesome lady from Vicenza, Italy in 1992 and we have two wonderful boys that are 14 and 15 yrs old. We live in Upstate New York near Watertown and are totally content with our lives.
My biggest suprise was running thru the 7-11 in Olivenhain and my only option was go to jail or join the army. Well, I joined the army and ended up staying 21 and a half years. 12 of those years as a paratrooper and jumpmaster. I have a great retirement of $36k a year and am a real estate broker selling homes now. What a trip it has been.
To tell the truth, there is not much that I have done in my life that I would do over. I would if anything I should have taken the cab home a couple more times instead...Expand for more
of driving. But I was lucky and nothing really happened to be ashamed of. I have done pretty well with the choices I have made in my life.
As far as jobs are concerned I built pools and spas, was a bricklayer, worked in restaurants, supplied the American tuna boats in American Samoa, worked for my father in Cabo San Lucas on sportfishing boats, then spent 21 and a half years as a fire support sergeant (forward observer) for the army and now am a real estate broker. I don't think any of my jobs have really been weird.
When I left Encinitas in 1985 I went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma for basic training, then on to Fort Benning, Georgia to airborne school, then to Fort Bragg, North Carolina for 2 years, off to Vicenza, Italy for 4 years, back to Fort Ord, California for 2 years, and the surf at Moss Landing was awesome, and Santa Cruz was hot, too, then North to Fort Lewis, Washington for a couple years, then back to Europe to Schweinfurt, Germany for 2 years, South to Italy for another 4 years, and in October 2000 made my final move to Fort Drum, New York with the 10th Mountain Division. And during my time I served in the first gulf war in Iraq in 1991, 1995-1996 was in Bosnia with IFOR, Kosovo in 2001 and in 2003-2004 was in Kandahar, Afghanistan for 9 months. The army definitely got their work out of me.
For those of you that made it this far, you must have known me to have read this, but I doubt many of my surfer buddies are even on this site.
Take care and God Bless You.
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