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ANYONE: Please feel free to contact me on my personal email: m2kect@yahoo.com
After graduation I went to USF for almost two years - left, came back to Ft. Pierce; married a local girl in 1971, had a son (Jon) and in 1973, even though I had a very high lottery number, I joined the USAF. Was stationed at Ellsworth AFB in Rapid City, S.D. That was like living on another planet in another star system! The Black Hills are beautiful! (NEVER refer to them as mountains - you'll be laughed out of town by the locals! Call them "the hills.")
However, the weather! That's the "other planet/star system" thing! Example: My wife, our son and me, in our little Toyota Carina . . pulling a very large U-Haul, were heading west across South Dakota . . . it's 96 deg. Motorhomes are parked on the shoulder of the Interstate due to overheating. I'm noticing way ahead of us - there is this tiny totally black cloud. When we were a couple hundred yards from our exit, the cloud was almost directly over us and it seemed like it was 8 at night even though it was around 2pm. When I pulled off at our exit, it hit - a wall of water, then ice, a 60mph wind that pushed us backward even though I had the brakes on! IN TEN MINUTES, the temp went down to 41 deg., 6 inches of ice on the ground, and I had to unpack the trunk to get our cold weather jackets out. When we pulled up to the guard station at the base the guard said, "Welcome to South Dakota!" I left the USAF in 1976 and went to work for Control Data in Rapid City. After a blizzard in March of 1977 where we were snowed in for 3 days, we moved back to Florida, to Melbourne.
I did electronic testing and troubleshooting here in Melbourne in 1977, and I've been here every since. Had divorced my kids mother in 1986 after 16 years. Was awarded our children so I was the proverbial "Mr. Mom" until they left the nest, yet I know that all those years raising them brought us closer to Jesus. Why you ask? Because we had to eat my cooking!
I re-married in 1988 and divorced in 1992 due to some "ex" interference - hers. I've been on my own since. Finally got my B.S. in Bus. Admin. and was a Branch manager at KSC in 1987, a year after the accident. Ended up leaving to manage the estate of Allen Neuharth (he created USA Today, the daily newspaper) in Cocoa Beach. That job was a trip! I met Tim Russert (was the anchor for "Meet The Press") and Tom Brokaw. When John Glenn went back into space on the shuttle, Neuharth threw an event at his estate, and I met Ted Kennedy, Bob Graham, and Jimmy Buffet. Left there to get a job that had a 9 to 5 predictable day! Finished up at the Brevard County School Board. In January of 2011 I said to myself, "Self, you done good, now quit and enjoy life!" So I resigned and retired in 2011.
I live an easy life, slow and actually drama-free. I am grateful to The Lord for everything He has done to me, with me, through me, as well as the creature comforts. THANK GOD FOR AIR CONDITIONING AND BENGAY!!!!!
