Cary Brown:  

Updated Feb 2009... Hi everyone. If you're taking the time to read this... thanks! I don't check here very often, but it's always nice to see who's checked out my profile. Some of this is stuff I wrote years ago, but I'm going to update it to reflect where I am today. **************************** Now, for a basic "timeline of my life:" After High School I went on to Rose-Hulman. College was... well, typical for a Rose Hulman student. Massive amounts of studying and work, with occasional punctuation with fun. I had my first serious relationships while in college, and also finally had the chance to figure out who >I< am... and the shy kid from high school pretty much disappeared during this time, replaced by someone with a lot more sense of who he was. Not QUITE the cocky guy I am today, but at least I didn't feel the world towering over me like I used to see things when I was a kid... and much closer to who I am today than you might remember me as. I paid for my education (Rose-Hulman) by competing for and winning an Army ROTC full scholarship. So, the day I graduated from college I also received my commission as a second lieutenant in Army Intelligence, and I was on active duty service for several years after that. I saw a lot of the world and did a lot of things I'd never dreamed about before. I was stationed at Fort Huachuca AZ for the better part of a year being trained in that line of work, then spent the next four years or so as a Tactical Intelligence staff officer with the 7th Infantry Division (LIGHT INFANTRY), at Ford Ord, CA. Fort Ord (or rather, "Planet Ord" as we called it!) is, or rather WAS (it's closed now) right off the Monterey Bay, probably the most beautiful place in the country. From the time I arrived at Ft. Ord, things were going on. First, the Loma Prietta earthquake (remember the World Series being interrupted? I was there...), then Operation Just Cause (the Panama invasion), then a tour at the National Training Center, essentially playing laser tag with tanks (I "died" several times over while there). At this point, I was promoted to First Lieutenant and moved to the Division Artillery, where my job was tactical threat assessment and targeting. About this time, Kuwait was invaded and we started prep for Operation Desert Shield (and later Desert Storm), which occupied our time for the next year and a half or so (and I'm SO glad to see us finally finish the job!). After that was all over, I was reassigned to a Senior Captain-level position with the 14th Combat Engineers (even though I was still a 1LT), and finished my active duty career there. I separated at the time that the force size was being reduced, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. I had suffered a fairly bad knee injury and have been working ever since to rebuild the use of my knee... that, combined with the force reductions, made it clear that it was time to go back to what I'd studied to do, engineering. So, after my time was up I chose to get back into engineering, and I've been working my way up in the industry ever since. I've worked in a series of different positions throughout my life. Most have been good situations which brought me a little closer to where I want to be, though a couple have been definite mistakes... hey, we all make them once in a while! After leaving Terre Haute, I lived in (1) Sierra Vista, Arizona, (2) Monterery, California, (3) McMinnville, Tennessee, (4) Rockford, Illinois, (5) Chicago, Illinois, (6) Evansville, Indiana (7) Dearborn, Michigan, (8) West Des Moines, Iowa, (9) Schaumburg IL (western Chicagoland, again), (10) Avon, Ohio (west of Cleveland), (11) Apex, North Carolina (SW Raleigh 'burb... and I really, REALLY wanted to stay there!) and now... yes, another one... (12) Austin, Texas. I just made this last move... as I write this, I'm about to hit my one-month move-anniversary. (And that's not counting my overseas and temporary assignments while in the military!) As you can see, I'm not like my parents in this regard. They were both born in Terre Haute, and my dad died there (and my mom will live out the rest of her life there as well, I'm sure). Me, I always wanted to get out, see the world, do new and interesting things. I've definitely done plenty of that... I...Expand for more