Michael Barber:  

I came to Red Land in my sophomore year after my dad retired from the Army (the National Security Agency, really. I learned much later when he could tell me that he was a spy) It was a relief to finally settle down to end my global travels across Europe and South America, through 12 schools in 12 years. A lot of you may also know my two younger sisters, Donna and Joanne (Jody.). Jody died at 36 in 1996 of a heart attack during an epileptic seizure and we had to step up and become their parents almost overnight. Both "kids" are now in their mid-30s with families of their own. Nephew Dave and his wife and kids live near me in Edmonds, Wa. Niece Amanda returned to Pennsylvania to manage my mom's care -- she is now 92 and insists on living at home. My dad was from Texas and left at 17 to join the Army. My mom was born in Royalton, Pa., but grew up on the New Cumberland Army Depot. My mom's parents always lived in New Cumberland so it became our home base between moves every two years to so from one of our global duty stations, and the place they finally retired to after over 20 years in the Army. I think I went to 13 schools in 12 years. My dad made a second career with Sears and my mom worked for the state. Ironically I wound up years later attending national security seminars at the Army War College in Carlisle as part of my job. I envied kids who had gone through school together. I started high school in Killeen, Texas ,and finished at Red Land. It was good to finally settle down though I subsequently realized I still had wanderlust. I wasn't sure I was college material but some great teachers like Mr. Malone, Mr. Fox, Mrs. O'Neal and Mr. Vorkapich -- our counselor-- convinced me otherwise. After knocking around for a couple of years as a carpenter and cabinetmaker, I joined the Marines to help with school. I first went to Shippensburg State U., where some great professors also gave me confidence that I had some academic talent, I transferred to Boston University and studied at the Harvard Extension School, and years later also earned a degree from Penn State. After trying out several careers unsuccessfully, I finally found my way into newspapers and spent about 30+ years as a reporter and editor., moving from one to another which is how I wound up with Seattle's main morning paper in 1983, the Post-Intelligencer. In college I had transferred from the Reserves into the Marine Platoon Leaders Class program at Quantico, Va., to become a combat infantry officer. I had thought of making a career of it but injured my spine and ankle in a training accident in 1976. It was not crippling but enough to end my days training in for the decathlon in college-level track. I was honorably discharged with a service=connected disability. In one of my first jobs, I had tried my hand working for a Spanish Speaking Center in Harrisburg, because I knew Spanish after my years growing up in Spain an Ecuador, and then worked at a couple of jobs in Pennsylvania state government. After encountering some political corruption and blowing the whistle in one job, however, I lost my state job. But when one door closes another opens -- there is always opportunity in adversity. I never studied journalism in college but was encouraged to try it by a friend, the editor of a local investigative weekly. That launched a nearly 30 year career in newspapers. I began as a writer and then editor of an investigative weekly in the Harrisburg area, then a daily in Ohio and ultimately 25 years with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. It was a privilege to be a journalist, standing up for the common person, holding the powerful accountable and,as the motto says, "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.." Interesting stories included the Green River Killer serial murders in the early 1980s. When Gary Ridgway finally was caught through advanced DNA testing and confessed to them 20 years later, he used a copy of a letter that I and my friend, Ann Rule, the crime writer, had received in 1984s, as blueprints to his confessions. I covered pretty much everything associated with the dark side of human nature, from crime to wars. I also spent months living on an American Indian reservation covering their return to whale hunting after 50 years and still like to visit a lot of friends I made on "the rez." The most rewarding stories I ever wrote, however, were with my late investigative partner, Andy Schneider. They led to the release from prison of 17 innocent people wrongly convicted of trumped up charges, mostly sex crimes. When 9/11 occurred, however, I became the military writer and war correspondent and went with the state's National Guard unit to Fort Irwin -- not far from Death Valley -- to train to be embedded with them when they went to Iraq. I tried to tell s...Expand for more