Past, Present, Future

Past
Andrew on top of World Trade Center tower two 1988 trackI was born in Southampton, NY in September of 1969.  Shortly thereafter, my family moved to California and I spent my earlier years in southern California and then the Mojave desert town of Boron, where I graduated from Boron High School in 1988.  I then attended Antelope Valley College in Lancaster, De Anza College in Cupertino, and Summer Language Institute at UCSC before graduating from San Jose State University on May of 1992 with a B.S. in Criminal Justice Administration.

I have also taken helicopter flight lessons in a Robinson R22, and a Bell 206B JetRanger from Aviak Flight Center at Palo Alto Municipal Airport and Nice Air at Reid Hillview Airport in San Jose, where I was a solo student.  I am close to a Private Pilot Rotorcraft-Helicopter rating, and hope to pursue a commercial rating after that, but at current, airspace restrictions, (the result of recent terrorist attacts), prevent me from continuing solo flight lessons in the bay area.

In 1994 I returned to De Anza College to renew my Emergency Responder certificate, a 50 hour American Red Cross class required for enrollment into an Emergency Medical Technician program at Santa Cruz County ETS Training Center.  I completed the 112 hour EMT program at the year's end, after which I transferred from APS in Santa Clara to APS in San Jose to work as an EMT at IBM.

In August of 2000, I made my break for the high-tech industry, working as a tech support representative for Metricom in San Jose for their product, the Ricochet Wireless Modem.  Although the company has since shut down, I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to work on their Tech Support team.

After Metricom's collapse, I was hired on at UCSC as a College Proctor.  Check out my UCSC home page.  I very much enjoied working with these students and UCSC is the most beautiful campus I have ever seen.  Built among the redwood forest foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, the architecture of the buildings allows for a magnificent view of of the Monterey Bay and is integrated closely with the landscape, preserving as many trees as possible.


Present
Since I found that it is very difficult to proceed on with my career goals without prior military experience, I decided to enlist in the U.S. Army for a five year enlistment as a Military Police Officer. My enlistment started in April and I completed my training at Fort Leanard Wood, MO in August of 2003.  Feel free to view my weblog which describes the day-to-day events that took place during OUST.  Like the events at OUST, these log entries range from frequent to infrequent, short to lenghty, and gripping to darn-right dull, so read them at your own risk.  I will work on an html-based page with pictures when I have the time.

I am currently stationed in Kaiserslautern, Germany, assigned to the 560th Military Police Co., a customs unit which handles U.S. Customs for U.S. Army Europe (USAREUR).  It is the only MP Co. in the 95th Military Police Battalion which is not deploying to Iraq.  I spend most of my time operating the Kaiserslautern MP Customs office during business hours, with occasional short missions to other parts of Europe to clear military hardware for importation back to the U.S.

Future
My ultimate goal is to work as a helicopter pilot for the California Highway Patrol.

The CHP has nine Bell 206L LongRanger and Bölkow BO-105 helicopters which I could be flying within two years of becoming a CHP officer, (once I become paramedic rated and build 300 hours of pilot in command time).  If I am unable to obtain the necessary age wavers for Officer Flight Training, my GI bill will cover most of the cost of my flight training after I leave the military.

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