Tim Howell:  

I was born in Roseville, CA at 6:05 pm on Saturday April 11th, 1970 to Bill and Billie Howell. I am the youngest of 4 (at the time). My mother had been married twice earlier; the first produced Max, my oldest brother. Then Julie was born and put up for adoption and found us when I was 15. The second marriage produced Ray. She then Married my dad and had my older sister Michael then me. We lived in California for I believe another year before moving to Illinois. Mother and Dad divorced in ¿74 and we children remained with her. We moved to Spokane, Washington, back around mother¿s family. We bounced around several houses for the next few years until Michael ¿broke the camel¿s back¿ and she and I moved in with dad in the summer of 1978. Dad lived in Puyallup, Washington (on the west coast). We moved into a 3 bedroom apartment with Dad, my step-mom Linda ¿Mom¿, and my step-brother Brian. Brian was 2 years older than me and 6 months older than Michael. Halfway through 3rd grade, we moved into a house on a cul-de-sac. There were 7 other houses there and between them all, there were about 18 kids. I lived with dad until I graduated from Gov. John R. Rogers High School. I moved from there to Seattle to attend South Seattle Community College. I went for less than a semester when I decided that I wanted to join the Army. I left for basic in March of 1989. I actually moved from reception to basic on 4/11/1989, my birthday. I went in as an MP in Ft McClellan, Alabama. I made it through about basic (MP school is ¿one station unit training¿ so no independent basic and AIT) when they came through giving everyone a chance to report fraudulent enlistment. I wanted out so I told them that I had done acid when I was younger. The Army decided that because I had qualified for everything, I should be reclassed instead of kicked out. In their infinite wisdom, they sent the fat man to Ft. Lee, VA to be a cook. Once I graduated there, I was stationed at Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah. It was there in Dugway that I met my first wife, Angie. I was 19 and she was 26 with 3 children, Jessica 7, Shawna 6, and Ronald 2. We were married in January of 1990 and in May; her mother had an aneurism rupture in her head. Angie¿s sister flew in from Ft. Drum, NY with her 6 month old daughter, Amanda. Susan and Angie spent the next couple of months at the hospital with their mom and I was left at home to care for 4 children. When Kay, my mother-in-law, was released, she moved in with us as well as Susan and Amanda. In January 1991, just prior to Operation Desert Storm, Angie and Susan and the kids headed for Missouri, where Angie¿s dad lived, under the guise of imminent bombing. The reality was that Angie wanted time away from me, and with her ex. I was transferred to Ft. Lewis, Washington and a little later, Angie moved there with me. After I got out of the Army, we moved to Missouri as Angie said that it was much cheaper to...Expand for more