I am an identical twin to my brother Dave who is my best friend; we were raised by two very loving parents who adopted us when we were only two months old. My father served two tours in Vietnam, we moved no fewer than ten times, and we finally settled at his retirement assignment at Fort Meade, MD. In high school I attended Junior ROTC class from 1981-1985. I attended Salisbury University and joined the Army ROTC program from 1985-1989, earned a two-year scholarship, and a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Military Police Corps with my first assignment being to the Republic of Korea. My Bachelor of Science degree was in Geography.
My initial assignments included South Korea and Fort Carson, CO where I led three platoons. I also was a company executive officer and a battalion logistics officer. During this tour, my Mom passed away, at 53 years of age due to heart failure - this was devastating to me. I have a daughter Brittany who is now 20 years old and in college out in Colorado. I took company command in Germany and was fortunate to have 14 months to train my entire company in preparation for the eventual deployment to Bosnia-Herzegovina by rail, road, and air in support of peacekeeping operations in December 1995. I then took an assignment at NC State University where I worked with the future leaders of our Army in the ROTC program as an instructor, trainer and mentor and pursued my Master’s degree.
At this point in my military career I formally transitioned to the Adjutant General Corps (which retains the Army’s HR professionals) in 2000. My destiny was to deploy to Iraq twice with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) where I would work for some of the greatest leaders to ever wear the uniform. So, like my father, I had my two combat deployments, just to a different country – a dusty, hot one at that. Since then, I have held various operational HR management assignments where I have been able to impact HR across the Army. I am now married to my high school/college sweetheart after 23 years of separation. Like my father I have chosen Fort Meade, MD as my retirement assignment. I am beginning my transition now and preparing to civilianize all that I know and understand so I can be of more value in the private sector. I plan on preparing for the SPHR by this Fall. I estimate I will retire from the Army in the winter/spring 2016 as a Lieutenant Colonel serving over 26 years on behalf of this Nation. Exciting times ahead!