Comments:
After graduation I attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY with Ken Simurdiak. We both graduated in 1993 and were commissioned as Infantry 2LTs in the Army. After spending some time down at Fort Benning, GA for a variety of Army schools (IOBC and Ranger school), I left for my first assignment at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, with the 25th Infantry Division. In November '93, I got married to my first wife, Michelle and we then headed off to Hawaii. I was there for about 2 years and then re-assigned back to Fort Benning where I was assigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment as a Platoon Leader. I stayed there until I was promoted to Captain, attended the Infantry Officer Advanced Course, and then was selected to be an instructor at the Infantry School. In 1998, our son Michael was born.
I started to get a little bored with the Army in '99 and decided to make a change and got out to begin working in Telecom Sales for Alcatel, managing some of our business with Verizon. We moved to Dallas for 6 months of training, and then to Northern Virginia where I've been ever since.
I changed companies in 2002 and worked for Foundry Networks where I was a Federal Sales Manager for DoD Europe. I did that, traveling over to Europe once a month for 7-10 days, for 5 1/2 years. That was a cool job, and spent a lot of time in Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland, and the UK. All of the traveling probably didn't help my marriage any in 2003 I was divorced. Although, I'm happy to say that my ex and I have a really good relationship and my son, Michael has really thrived. He's with me 1/2 the time and really into sports, especially Football, Basketball and LaCrosse. We all live pretty close to one another, so an unhappy period of my life turned out pretty good in the end.
I got re-married on NYE 2005 to Julie, and along with a new wife, became step-dad to her daughter Chloe, who is 8. She's a trip, 8 going on 18 and into dance, gymnastics, the Jonas Brothers (groan) and her friends. Julie owns her own business, Meridian Home Staging & Design, wheres she basically does an "Extreme Home Make-Over" for people trying to sell their homes.
We live in Lansdowne, VA which is just outside of DC. Julie's originally from Baltimore and we spend a lot of time up there as well. My company was recently acquired, so now I'm the Regional Sales Manager for MD/DC/VA for Brocade.
As far as hobbies and such; when I'm not spending time with Julie and the kids, I enjoy hanging out with friends and family, playing guitar, golfing, working out, travel, books, movies, and I'm an NFL nut during football season.
I look forward to seeing everyone at the reunion. My Mom and Dad are still in town, so it'll give me a good chance to see them as well.
