Peter Gerdeman:  

We moved as a herd from San Marino (Pasadena) to Claremont when I was 5 (1956) and attended a local parochial school before reaching Claremont High. I graduated halfway through my senior year (Jan 69), with "The less of routine and the more of life" penned next to my picture in the CHS yearbook. It would have been better to graduate the summer before (68). I was not part of the popular click. I went to work full time for the Southern Pacific Railroad as a computer operator in the evenings, while attending Cal Poly Pomona during the day. After less than two years, grades suffering, and low lottery number, I became eligible for the draft. I enlisted as a weapons technician and wound up going off-shore Vietnam, along with visiting several parts of the Pacific Rim. As I was considering exiting from my obligated service, I was offered a full scholarship to the University of New Mexico. I grabbed that opportunity and completed a BE EE and a BS in Math, both cum laude, and was commissioned with distinction as an Ensign (77). Then it was off to flight schools in Florida, Texas, and Arkansas. I received my wings (79). I got married for the second time (80), and went off to an EC-130 squadron that was in Patuxent River, MD. This time I had the opportunity to visit locations around the North Atlantic Basin. I left active duty Navy (84), joined the Reserves again, and started and led Infact, Inc., providing hardware and software engineering. During this period, I completed an MBA at USC (85, through an extension campus in DC), and an MS Systems Engineering at University of Florida (87). I joined The MITRE Corporation (88) and supported communications engineering efforts for US Defense and Intelligence customers in San Antonio, TX; London, UK; Washington, DC; Eatontown, NJ; San Diego, CA; and returned to DC in the Fall (08). While in the London assignment, I was recalled for active duty with the Navy in support of the first Gulf War and served in the Mediterranean and in eastern Turkey. I then returned to London and pursued a PhD in Adaptive Communications at Oxford (never completed). I retired from the Naval Reserves after 26 years of combined service (enlisted & officer). This was another milestone for me: after being an active Republican for nearly twenty-five years, I switched parties to Democrat. Based mostly on US pre-emptive attack on Iraq (03), a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, and no WMD were ever found. But over 300,000 Iraqis have died in a war still going on for 15+ years. 5,000 Americans died, 40,000 severely injured, and $3T+ (yes, trillion) spent. For what? And no one has been held accountable. One can be a veteran, patriotic, and not be right-wing. I took a sabbatical to New Zealand (03-04), and then divorced upon returning to the States after 25 years of marriage (05). I'm now an empty nester of a married son (37) in Rale...Expand for more