No Sense of Humor

Unlike in previous books where Author's write about themselves in the third person on the back cover of the book, I decided to change that approach. Not only am I going to give you a mini-autobiography but give you answers on several questions that many of my readers have asked me in the past. Originally, I was born and raised in a small town called Methuen, Massachusetts. It borders New Hampshire, the place where I grew up and lived for almost 18 years. I come from a family that has its roots deep in French-Canadian ancestry. I am the oldest of three brothers and proud of the fact that on my Father's side, there are only men and have been for over six generations. Now you can see why I write about traditions in the books. My childhood was neither boring nor tremendous. One could say it was routine except for the fact that since my family is Catholic, I went to Parochial school until I went to High School. During my final year in High School, I joined the Army under the Delayed-Entry program. A few months later I attended Basic training at Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo. Soon thereafter I found myself serving the first of many tours in Germany. My military career spanned a total of 18 years, 16 of which was spent on active duty along with 2 years in the reserves. Nine of my 18 years was spent in Germany on three different tours. I even spent two summers at West Point training 3rd year Cadets as well as a couple of state-side tours in between. Probably the best time I had in the military was during my last tour at Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo. when I returned to become a Drill Instructor. I wanted to stay an additional year as a D.I. but the Army was downsizing at the time and would not approve the additional year. To top off my military career, I rejoined the Army 10 years later to join a reserve outfit in Wisconsin as a reserve D.I.