JD Box:  

I enlisted in the Navy at the end of my junior year – “see the world” they said – so I traded my final year of high school to visit such exotic places as Pakistan, Somalia and the tropical paradise of Diego Garcia…what the hell was I thinking. After my first tour of active duty, I attended FIT in Jensen Beach for commercial diver training and shortly thereafter re-enlisted in the reserves, serving thirteen years with the military. I studied mechanical engineering at UF and FSU on the lifetime installment plan while working as a diver/welder, hyperbaric technologist (CHT) at Shands Hospital in Gainesville and as an engineer intern with Navy’s Diving and Life Support Division in Panama City. This phase of life was known as “embracing the suck” – a term that years later my kids would become quite familiar with when complaining about homework. After finishing school (and having watched perhaps one too many episodes of Homer Simpson hitting the big red button), I made a career change to a much less hazardous way of making a living – working in the nuclear services field. So, I hung up my Superlite 17 (diving helmet), bought a really nice pocket prote...Expand for more