Gary Knoke:  

I feel grateful for the variety of experiences I've had in life. After high school, I spent a few years in junior college, then went to the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, which provided a great education both academically and socially. My year at Four Columns, especially, was fantastic. After that, with a low draft number, I enlisted in the Navy, and was stationed in Great Lakes, Florida, DC, Texas, Connecticut, and finally 3 years in Rota, Spain. The Navy trained me to be a Morse Code operator and a Hebrew linguist; I was in the Navy part of the NSA. I went out to sea in the Mediterranean whenever there was a Mideast crisis, including the 1973 Yom Kippur War. My sea duty included time (TAD) on destroyer escorts, a cruiser, an aircraft carrier, an amphibious support ship and 30 incredible days on the USS Pargo, a nuclear attack submarine. I can verify the stories about submarine food: it's super! My favorite trip in the Navy was a 3-month cruise to the Indian Ocean, where I got liberty in Bahrain; Karachi, Pakistan; Djibouti; some truly paradise islands called the Seychelles; Port Louis, Maritius; the Comore Islands; Reunion Island; Missawa, Ethiopia; and Mombasa, Kenya where I went on a 3-day photo safari. From Spain, I got to almost every country in Western Europe, including a magical two-week trip to the fjords of Norway, where we turned around way above the Arctic Circle near the Russion border. After the Navy, I returned to Illinois and found employment with the U.S.l Government at GSA, where I was trained as a realty specialist. After about 5 years there, I transferred to DC, where I worked for GSA and then for USDA in similar administrative capacities until Dec. 1, 2003, when I retired from USDA with over 32 total years of Federal service. I spent the last 10 years doing, of all things, cost and price analysis of photocopiers. (Well, someone had to do it). Just before going to USDA, I married Helen, then an assistant principal in an elementary school in Fairfax County, VA. Helen later became a principal, and retired in 1999. Helen introduced me to her Westie, Jenny, and I learned that Westies (white terriers) are "big dogs in little bodies". When Jenny passed away in 1993, I told everyone that "she lived a long life was the sweetest dog you could imagine. In 2004, my first year of retirement, I did lots of travelling. Continuing with my main hobby since 1981, metal detecting, I went to England 3 times (for a total of 24 trips) and this time I found my first gold coin!! It's a 1515-1556 hammered gold Spanish 1 escudo from Charles I and Joanna, who were the son and daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella! It was an incredible moment. I've also found Roman bronze and silver coins, some hammered silver Medieval coins, a bronze Celtic coin, some Celtic artifacts, and some neat relics from Celtic, Roman, and Medieval times. I also enjoy detecting in the States (and am always looking for new places to search: "Have Detector, Will Travel.") My other thrill in 2004 was successfully summitting Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa. At 19,340' it is the highest point on tha...Expand for more