Edward Michael:  

After graduation in 1958 I attended Ohio State for one year. I really didn't like being poor in college. The dean said that I didn't need to return and he wouldn't charge me. I joined the Marine Corps and started my travel around the world. For the first two years I played baseball for the Marine Corps at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, (MCRD) San Dego. Then Vietnam came along and I had to be a real Marine. Some of the places where I visited were great and some were not so good. Such as Vietnam two tours , first in 1962 with the Marine Corps and a second in 1965 with the Army. After the second tour my wife suggested that I get out of the military if I wanted to watch my sons grow up. I joined the Dayton Fire Department in 1968. I was injured in a fire and resigned from the fire department in 1979. I went to the Mayo Clinic to have my back checked and the Mayo Clinic repaired the pinched nerve and ruptured disk from a fall down an elevator shaft with the fire department. I was permitted to remained in the Army Reserves after the injury was reviewed by the army. In 1979 I relocated to Sheboygan, Wisconsin my wife's home town and secured a job at Kohler Company, as a foreman in the foundry. We cast the engine blocks for the Kohler small engine and generator plants along with the bath tubs and other plumbing ware products. In 1982, after three years with Kohler I was laid off. That was the time when the interest rates on housing were at 29 and 30 percent. There wasn't a big demand for people wanting the plumbing products we made because there were no houses being built or remodeled at that time. Kohler laid-off approximately 3500 out of 5000 employee's. At the time of my lay-off I had one son in college and another ready to start the next year. I was in the Army Reserves, at the time of the lay-off, when the Military changed to the all volunteer force and asked for veterans to return to active duty. There were never any lay-offs in the military so I knew that I could help with my sons education if I returned to the military. I applied for return to active duty and was selected. I had to enter active duty as a corporal as I had been out of the military to long at the time. In 1968 I was discharged as a Staff Sergeant a big pay adjustment but, I had a steady job. I was promoted to sergeant and served one year as a drill sergeant. In 1982 I was assigned to recruiting duty and spent the next 7 years as a recruiter in my wife's home town of Sheboygan. Recruiting duty is a good position to make promotion if you make your mission. I was promoted to First Sergeant in 1989 and returned to the Drill Sergeant position as a First Sergeant of a training battery in artillery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. I thought I had finished my military career in Oklahoma and returned to Wisconsin. While I was waiting for my final discharge papers I was activated for Desert Shield/Storm. My discharge was efffective, October 6, 1990, and I was activated, September 30, 1990. After I returned from Saudi Arabia. I secured employment in another factory. I had a very brief tenure in that position untill my first break. I was standing by this machine that was going ka-chunk, ka-chunk, ka-chunk and I thought to myself, damn this is real mind expanding. I took my lunch pail at that first break and walked out the door never to return. I decided to return to college and pursue my degree. I attended Lakeland College, Sheboygan Wisconsin and graduated in 1995 with a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration and Information Systems. After completing my degree I started my business, a courier service delivering expedited packages and the checks for the Federal Reserve to Chicago. When the Federal Reserve changed to the electronic transfer system the check transportation business went flat so I decided to take full retirement and early social security. I was bored doing very little and applied to my Alma Mater, Lakeland College, for one of the assistant baseball coaching positions as the pitching coach. I have been in this position for the last two years. I have also taken on the academic advisor and recruiting responsibilities. I had a taste of coaching as a drill sergeant, and baseball coach in the coummunity of Sheboygan Falls, and know now that coaching is the hidden occupation I had a desire to do...Expand for more