Patrick Kelly:  

What a long strange trip it's been. After graduation I went to New Mexico again, to be on Philmont Scout Ranch staff for the summer of 1975 prior to going on active duty in the military. Then in August I returned to Waterloo but was immediately whisked away to the Army which turned out to be a pretty wild time. I got out in November 79 and started school at UNI in the Spring of 1980. I was a Radio-TV Communications major and in the summer of 1983 I interned at KCRG TV in the Waterloo Bureau where I learned how to be a "beat reporter" from a 1975 West High grad named Craig Shubert. I kept on at KCRG until after I graduated UNI in May, 1984. I then ventured west to Boise, Idaho and started a new schtick called Adventure Reporting at KTVB-TV and had a rather raucous good time as a reporter- photographer until my sudden departure from the business in March of 1990 when I was overheard referring to my boss as a "limp dick." The truth hurt, my career was ended and eventually I wound up back in the military. As a two time failure at marriage I thought I had women pretty much figured out so for my third and final shot at the title I picked a woman from Croatia who couldn't speak English. She liked guns and doing shots of tequila so we got along great. I figured that the only way I could keep a marriage together is if we actually couldn't communicate instead of just choosing not to. Now, I speak a handful of languages poorly but we get along great going on 20 plus years now. I never considered making the military a career until after I had 25 plus years in and I got hurt on the job and was medically discharged. Then I realized I had a career in the military. I guess it was a blessing in disguise. Political Correctness is not my forte. By the virtue of poor medical treatment at the VA and my taste for hops, grain and barley along with a completely trashed body; I blew out both knees, my left hip, lower back, right shoulder with a few torn muscles and severed nerves after 133 hard parachute landings. I easily pass for the Kung Fu Panda meets Big Bird and walks like the Tin Man. No big deal though, Dave Redman who is half my size but of equal wit has jumped on the "Get in Shape for the 40th Reuni...Expand for more