Wayne Strickland:  

Hi Everyone: Here's a summary of my... "story"... at the age of 71...It's just a short overview. (Last updated on 1/23/2024.) Many may not know that during my junior & senior years in high school I worked fast food jobs (mostly full-time) in addition to going to school....I started at the Dairy Queen during my junior year...and at Jack's Hamburgers during my senior year....Remember DQ & Jack's?....worked most week nights and weekends too... so I didn't have much of a social life my last two years in high school. After high school, I was accepted to the Univ. of Alabama...but was then drafted...(remember the draft?).. so I joined the Navy & became a Navy hospital corpsman for 4 years, 3 of which was with the U.S. Marines at Camp LeJeune, NC...(the Marines get their medical personnel from the Navy). Went to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Panama for jungle training, & other places...but did not go to Vietnam... After a couple duty stations for schools, I was eventually stationed at Camp LeJeune Marine Corps Base, NC for the rest of my enlistment. While in one of the Navy schools, I was interviewed by a high school newspaper reporter who traveled to Great Lakes Navy Base, IL (with other reporters from Ohio) to write about Navy life....after the interview we exchanged addresses...to make a long story short, we got married a couple years later, (I was 21 and Cindy was 18). After my 4 year enlistment ended, I was honorably discharged from the Navy as a second class petty officer...... came back to the Univ of Alabama at Tuscaloosa in January 1976 (now married)....graduated 4 yrs later in Dec 1979 with a degree in accounting... Paul Bear Bryant was still the football coach then. While in the Navy, Cindy and I agreed that when I got out, we would go to the Univ of Alabama and get my degree, but afterwards we would move to her hometown of Athens, Ohio to look for employment....so in Dec 1979 we moved to Athens, Ohio...(home of Ohio University, not Ohio State) and I became a CPA and now own an accounting & tax practice and just st...Expand for more