Birth date:  July 14th, 1970

I grew up in Dows IA and graduated from Dows Community High School (Graduating class of 1988).  I have one brother (John) that is one and a half years younger than me.  He still lives in Dows and has two daughters (Janesha and Jordan).  My parents (David and Leann) live close to Dows in the town of Goldfield IA.

Between my junior and senior year of High School I enlisted in the United States Navy.  Four days after my 18th birthday my recruiter picked me up and I was on my way.  After graduation from Boot Camp in Orlando FL I reported to the first step of the Navy's Nuclear Training School in Orlando.  I wasn't feeling right about the decision I made and dropped the school

and headed to the fleet.  In December of 1988 I reported to the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), an aircraft carrier that was going through overhaul at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.

It took about a year and a half to complete overhaul and then we started our work ups.  This took me from Philadelphia to Norfolk, Norfolk to St Thomas VI, St Thomas to Mara de Plata Argentina, Mara de Plata to Valparaiso Chile, and around Cape Horn.  From Cape Horn we traveled to Honolulu Hawaii, and then finally to our new home port of San Diego CA.  We had several small cruises that didn't amount to too much and were slated to join Desert Storm in the Mediterranean.  When they pulled the ground troops out at the end of Desert Storm the USS Independence already had her battle group in place and they chose to keep the USS Kitty Hawk in San Diego.  My duties on ship were as an Electrician's Mate (EM) and primary electrician on the At-Sea Flying Squad (Shipboard Fire Fighting and Medical Response Team).  I chose not to re-enlist and was honorably discharged from the United States Navy after my four year enlistment in July of 1992.

I moved to West Des Moines IA in 1992 and went through several job changes.  I worked for Younkers Dept Store selling on the sales floor and then moved to doing warehouse merchandising.  After that I moved to something closer to my military training and started doing installation of data and telecommunications wiring including fiber optics (ETA certified installer 1997 - 2002) for two companies in the Urbandale area, Computer Cable Connection and Computer Support Systems.  Not long after an accident on the job I  decided that maybe I wasn't where I wanted to be, I applied and was offered a job doing Technical Support for Wells Fargo Mortgage.

While with Younkers I entered a marriage that 7 years later ended in a divorce.  One of the highlights of my life occurred during this time.  That was the birth of my daughter Morgan Marie on May 9th  1994 at approximately 720 PM, (5 lbs 6 oz and 21 in long).

From Wells Fargo I briefly moved to ING Insurance, after being very unhappy there, I was offered the job with ADP in November of 2000 that I currently hold as a Helpdesk Analyst. While working with ADP I spoke to Melinda Hippler, following a few phone conversations, and after much ducking around the subject we made a date for August 8th 2001 (Neither having a clue of what the other looked like) and have been happily together since.  

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