A short background

That's me in the picture. First, a little background...In September of 1990, when I was 19 years old, and with a life that was going nowhere,  I decided to fly off 'into the wild blue yonder' and join the United States Air Force.  I went through basic training in San Antonio Texas, tech school in Wichita Falls, TX for medical administration, and ended up as a security police officer augmentee for the first two years of my enlistment due to my bases extended deployment to the desert.  Which, given the events of today, I now lovingly refer to as: Desert Storm, Act I.   Just to make sure I clear up any misconceptions here, I personally was not deployed to Iraq, although at the time I did volunteer to go (feeling invincible, perhaps?).  Instead I was filling a hole that was left by those who DID go to the desert.  In the military this is known as being used 'in support of' any given conflict that might be going on at the time.   I married soon after my enlistment, and in May of 1992, I left Texas and was stationed in Germany until I got out of the Air force in 1995.  I was divorced soon thereafter, and began my life/career journey that has ultimately taken me on a winding road through a couple of jobs, college, and even a short stint in Law School until I ended up where I am today.  In a junior level management position with a major corporation. 

Early in the year of 2003, while speaking to a friend, Laura, who is actually one of only 2 people I have kept in touch with from my time in the Air Force, we were discussing my recent acceptance to Law School, and her newly commissioned status in the Air Force, and she planted the seed in my head about the possibility of going back into the military now that I had a degree under my belt.   To be honest, I  had law school on the brain and my entire focus was on that, and the challenge that was sure to be great of working full time and going to law school full time.  After all, the mortgage doesn't pay itself.  Nonetheless, the seed had been planted and I began to consider the possiblity of the JAG corps upon my graduation from Law School.