After returning from Kenya in September, 1977, I was still suffering from the side-effects of the food poisoning incident, feeling very weak. So, I took a semester off, and working part time while I regained my strength and went through medical testing to determine if there would be long-term effects.
I enrolled at Creighton University in the Spring ’78 semester. College for me that first semester was mostly without incident. I did go to a job fair for the summer, and ended up being hired by the Boy Scouts to run the lake-front aquatics program for one of the 3 camps the local scout council ran. In late May, after completing the various finals, I was off to Utah to attend a “scout camp school” to learn the skills needed to run an aquatics program. Returning to Omaha, I then spent the remainder of the summer running two programs for the BSA. One of the things we could do was, when our programs weren’t running we could participate in other programs. I soon learned I had a bit of skill with rifles, and enjoyed learning how to shoot.
In September of that year, I returned to college, though not at Creighton. I still wasn’t ready to “buckle down”, and Creighton isn’t the school for lazy students. I enrolled that fall at Kearney State College (now the University of Nebraska at Kearney). In addition to my classes, I wanted to keep up with my shooting, so I enrolled in the ROTC program at Kearney, specifically so that I could take classes in Rifle Marksmanship. This led to my becoming more active in ROTC’s other programs.
In November, I returned to Omaha for Thanksgiving break. While there, I learned that Mom & Dad had sold the house, and were moving to California! It was a tremendous shock. I’d known nothing but Omaha my entire life, and always expected that our family home there would stay with us for ever! To this day, I miss that house.
In the spring, I applied for an ROTC Scholarship. Then, without knowing what the outcome of that application would be, I joined my parents in Sacramento for the summer. That summer, I spent some time with the Santa Barbara council of the Boy Scouts, running their aquatics program. I also worked for the East L.A. Boys and Girls Club, at their camp in Mono Lake. That turned out to be a huge mistake, and I quit after 1 week.
Towards the end of the summer, I learned that I had NOT won a scholarship, but that I was selected as an alternate, or runner up. I prepared to stay in Sacramento, and to attend a local Community College for one semester, then apply to Cal. State Univ. at Sacramento in the spring. But with 1 week to go before classes started, I received a call that the winner of the 3 year scholarship had to back out, and it was now mine! Mom and I rushed to put everything in order, then drove back to Nebraska, arriving with less than 12 hours to spare before my first class! While I don’t remember a lot of the details of that drive, I do remember having a blast with Mom! And that it was a very hard drive!
I only spent 1 more year at KSC, then transferred my scholarship and myself to California State University, Sacramento. My college career was not stellar, but not shabby, either. In my last year at CSUS, I married my high school sweetheart (to which I’ll only append the word… yuck… big mistake). In November 1982 I was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army, and in March I moved to Virginia to begin training for my role as a Transportation Corps officer.
The early ’80s were a largely peaceful time for the USA. I spent my entire career within 40 miles of Fort Eustis, Virginia. My unit deployed to Granada that first year, but I stayed behind, except for one short visit.
In 1985, my wife and I divorced, and in 1987, I left the active army. I spent another 4 years in the reserves, leaving the military as a Captain.
On The Road II 