William Lowder:  

Where to start... Life has been good but I'm glad that it's starting to wind down. There have been high points - The friends I've made along the way, getting married, the birth of my daughters (and now grand daughter) and the relationships I've had. The low points - Divorce, the lost of my grandmother (father's side), grandfather (mother's side) and my mother in the same year - but in the end, I can't complain. "Been there, done that" has been more of a lifestyle with me than a bad quote. High school, College, The Army and now Marquette are truly the life experiences that have made me who I am today. I've had the opportunity to travel and truly get to see the world that we live in. It's been a great experience getting re-acquainted with old friends weather you were in the group I hung out with, friends of the family or just someone I'd say high to in class or at a group event. At the time, even though all we did was sit around and plan our futures, we never thought that we'd grow apart like we have. We spent all four years of high school counting the days until graduation and the rest of our lives wishing it lasted longer. I remember hating school breaks because all my friends were gone during that time. I was so glad when classes started up again. As for my life story¿ After high school I worked at Safeway for another year before I was accepted to DeVry Institute of Technology in Kansas City, MO. were I hung in there and received my Associates Degree in Business Management and my B.S. in Electronics Engineering. I then worked for Dell strait out of school, right at the time they were starting to grow but no sooner did I start there, they had cut backs and I was laid off. Nobody else wanted to give me a chance because of my inexperience. Even though I had plenty of knowledge. I then turned my attention to the US Army and the new technology that they were getting ready to deploy. So, I became a Patriot Missile Operator / Maintainer. Not only did I get to work on a multi-billion dollar high tech system but I also got to drive monster looking trucks, fire missiles, blow up things and play with machine guns. Every young guys dream come true. During my stay in the Army, I was stationed at Fort Bliss, TX. - Kaiserslautern, Germany - Haifa, Israel - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Dhahran, Saudi Arabia and Suwon Air force Base, South Korea. I participated in the Gulf War and about five other campaigns in the region. I was in Haifa, Israel during the beginning of the war protecting the Israelis from the threat of scud attacks. We stayed there for almost three months before going back to Germany. Then, it was back to the states in the last part of 1993. The unit I went to was getting ready to start a rotation back to the Persian Gulf area to operate and maintain the Patriot Missile Systems that...Expand for more