Bart Riordan:  

After graduating from High school in 1965 I enrolled at OSU. I was there one year and due to prolonged partying was asked to leave. That suited me fine, at the time. I was off to conquer the world. I went back home and started to work at my cousins egg farm. I figured if I waited the mandatory year I could go back to OSU and finish. The government had other plans. I had been drafted. All my hopes and dreams were in the toilet. I had to think quick. Should I go to the Army for two years or the Navy for four. I was somewhat familiar with the Navy. My mom and dad were Navy. Also, my room mate at OSU had just finished four years in the Navy. So, I joined, and left June 1966 for boot camp. I eventually went to Hospital Corps School and became a Navy Corpsman( Medic). First duty station, US Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland. I went to X-ray school there and met my first wife, a navy nurse. I also had a part time job, as an X-ray tech at the local hospital. She went to Viet Nam, stationed aboard the Hospital ship, Sanctuary. She was there one year while I stayed in Annapolis. She returned May 1969, and I shipped out to The First Marine Air Wing, Viet Nam, in June 1969. I spent a year in Northern I corps,Viet Nam as a helicopter, volunteered as a med evac corpsmen, pulling wounded Marines out of the bush and delivering them to the various medical aid stations, or the hospital ship. This was a pretty awful time. My helo was shot down twice and there was blood and carnage most days, but we did have our good days. I left Viet Nam and was sent to Japan for 3 months. It was a beautiful place and the Japanese were very nice. There were some really great places to visit. I left Japan and returned to the San Francisco where I was discharged in 1970. My wife, the Navy nurse, whom had been living and working in Portsmouth, at the SOMC, wanted to live in her home town, Warren, Rhode Island. We lived there for about 3 months. Jobs were hard to come by for me. While I was a trained X-ray tech I did not have the civilian training needed to take the test for national certification. I called my boss, whom I had worked for at the hospital in Annapolis. He said I could enroll in their 2 year program and work as a tech while I finished. So, two years later I passed all the necessary exams and became a Registered Tech. My boss had left the hospital and took a job as Radiology Director. He asked me to come to Charleston WVA as manager of the department. I thought this would be a great step and I would be close to home. I had been there about a year when I was contacted buy the hospital I had just left. The asked me if I would consider coming back and managing the department. The opportunity to go back to he sailing capital of the world was too much. I said yes and we were back in Annapolis within a month. While I was there a representative from a major X-ray manufacture ask me if I would consider going into sales. This was another opportunity to branch out and make more money. I figured I had a talent for talking to people. How hard could it be? I worked at that job for about 14 years. During that time I divorced my first wife and took college courses at night. I met my current wife while making a sales call on a small hospital on the Eastern Shore of Mar...Expand for more