Charles Weber:  

"After graduating from high school, I headed off for college at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point. I began studying to become a professional forester, but soon learned that this was not the profession for me. They were not teaching me anything that I did not already know. I had always been interested in electronics, but the closest Stevens Point had was physics. They were also a teaching college, so that was the direction I decided to head in. The fact that my father thought this was the best idea I had to date, cemented that route. I dated Cherie LaValle for about a year and a half before we broke up. About the same time, I met the woman who was to become my wife. A year later we became engaged, and six months later we were married. I graduated from college in August 1963 (I needed one more course to finish), and we moved to Bonduel Wisconsin for my first teaching job. We had a pleasant three years there and were planning on moving to a small school in northern Illinois, while at the same time I was beginning to work on my master’s degree at Purdue University during their summer sessions. It would take me five years to complete this, which I would complete in Aug 1971. However, during that summer, we received an offer to go overseas and teach for the Department of Defense in Japan, which we accepted. We thought it would probably be for only for one or two years. We spent thirty-three years in this program (known as DoDDS and later as DoDEA), working on military bases overseas. Later that summer we left the country headed for Chitose Japan. We were there for only one year. It was an extremely small school and they had 100% turnover of staff (6 teachers total) every year. We were then offered a transfer to Itazuke Air Base, on the southern island of Kyushu. While there I not only taught, but became the assistant principal, and finally, before that base closed, I was the acting principal. This lasted for five years. Just before leaving here, our daughter Deana was born. After that they moved us to Okinawa Japan (K-9: Kubasaki 9th grade). This was the year that we returned Okinawa to the Japanese government. Okinawa was an interesting assignment, but nine months later we received an offer to transfer to Baumholder Germany and gladly accepted. Baumholder Germany was interesting because it was so close to France, Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. We visited all those countries many times, as well as traveling all over Germany. During this same time, I began coaching (football, track, and cross country) and began teaching for colleges/universities in the evening. The second year we were stationed in Baumholder our son Bryan was born. We had to live on base for the first five years which we did, and were about to move off base, when we were offered a transfer to Sigonella Sicily. We grabbed at the chance! Sicily was a wonderful place for us in our 30's, and our children were beginning to grow up. We lived in the village of Nicolosi, near the top of Mount Etna (Europe's largest active volcano) and spent our summers on the beaches of the Mediterranean. Here I continued coaching, teaching evenings for colleges/universities, and became the athletic director for most of the five years we remained here. Near the end of these five years, the Mediterranean district began to change, and we applied for and were offered a transfer back to Japan which we accepted. We were assigned to Yokota Air Base, in the Tokyo area....Expand for more