I was born in Eau Claire, WI in 1979. I joined the Navy via the delayed entry program while a senior in high school, getting permission from my parents as I was only 17. I went to boot camp at the end of July 1997.
Following boot camp, I went through the Nuclear Power schools pipeline. While there I had to wait for a month and a half between A and Nuclear Power school as my security paperwork to get Secret clearance was lost somewhere and had to be filled out again. This included calls to Senators and my Representative about waiting until I was supposed to start the school until telling me I had to redo the paperwork. After calling my representatives in Congress the matter was resolved quickly.
After schooling I was then attached to USS Santa Fe (SSN-763) in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii late in 1999. Upon arriving in Hawaii, the boat was in the middle of a Western Pacific Deployment(West-Pac). During this deployment the boat was rushed to the Gulf region and was within minutes of launching Tomahawks into Afghanistan on an Al-Qaeda camp, I was told after meeting the boat. It took a little over a month before I finally got to fly to Bahrain to meet the boat and I got a free passport out of the deal, so I got to enjoy the wonderful Hawaii weather during that time.
While aboard the Santa Fe, I went to Bahrain; Singapore; Okinawa, Japan; Guam; Subic Bay, Philippines; Sasebo, Japan; Yokuska, Japan; Chinhae, South Korea; Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territories; San Diego, California; Ketchikan, Alaska; and Victoria, British Columbia. I also attended HPAC, gage calibration, firefighting, and leadership school for PO2's during the summer of 2001. The leadership school being interrupted by 9-11-2001. The boat had just gotten back from West-Pac and we almost went back to the Gulf but of the Bush administration took over a month before attacking Afghanistan and waging the unbounded Operation Enduring Freedom.
The main thing I saw that shaped my current beliefs was the disparity of quality of life between the U.S. and other countries (discussed some in my interview below, mainly what I saw in the Philippines). I was also definitely shaped by the belligerently racist views of my shipmates on and after September 11. In addition to what I saw, I started to read a lot of nonfiction during the West-Pac of 2001 and continued to read a lot while underway later on. While I can write what my beliefs are, they are constantly evolving based on my experiences so a snapshot of a certain point in my life would be better. To learn more about some of my beliefs listen to a radio interview I did here (http://tinyurl.com/24af2d) in the middle of May 2006. In the course of my reading I learned that the bus we took from the base in Singapore to the Yishun MRT station was under surveillance by Al Qaeda and there were plans to attack around the time I was there. This is in "Inside Al Qaeda" (http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=17-0425191141-2).
Upon leaving the Navy I went to school at UW-Eau Claire for Physics as part of their Dual-Degree Program. While there I helped to form a Veterans for Peace group. I recently completed my studies at UW-Madison for a Mechanical Engineering B.S and received my B.S. in Physics from UW-Eau Claire. I am a co-founder of the IVAW chapter here in Madison (http://ivaw.org/madison) where I serve as the President. I currently am employed as the Assistant Kitchen Manager at Porchlight, Inc. In the capacity I manage the kitchen at our Veterans Transitional Housing Program, assist with the Community Meal and our Porchlight Products programs as needed.