His Story

I was born and raised in beautiful sunny southern California. I was born in Long Beach, and my family of 6 lived there until I was about 5 years old. Right before I started kindergarten we packed up and moved to a small rural town called Jurupa, and I did the first part of my growing up there. Having three brothers, Nathaniel, age 33, Adriel, age 30, and Joel, age 24, there was always something to do, and someone to play with. I still remember the day I learned to ride my bike there, and how it was to be the only kid whose parents had pigs and chickens in the backyard. It was a time in my life I will always remember. The summer before 8th grade my family moved out to a small town called Corona. This is where I did the second half of my growing up. While living in Corona I went to high school, met my best friends, and did everything that goes with growing up in southern California - skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding, and everything in between. I loved living in southern California and I thought I was going to stay there forever. But when I was 19 I realized my life wasn't really going anywhere and I needed a change, so I enlisted in the U.S. Army on August 1st, 2001.

I enlisted to be an Airborne Infantryman. I had heard about what it was going to be like, and I was looking forward to all the the Army had to offer me. While I was in the Army I went to basic training, infantry training, and airborne school in Georgia, and every peach I ate had a sticker on it saying it came from CA. Those stickers helped me not miss home as much. While in basic training America was attacked on September 11th, 2001. This event pretty much shaped the rest of my military career. I completed my training and went on to my unit at Fort Bragg, NC in March of 2002. I was with the 82nd Airborne Division. The 82nd is one of the best and most proud units in the Army, and I felt honored to be there. My unit trained for 5 months before heading to Afghanistan in July of 2002 to help lead the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. While in Afghanistan my platoon traveled a lot, and went on every mission we could. We stayed in remote regions far from any civilization, on large coalition force bases, and everywhere in between.

After being in Afghanistan for 4 months my company was offered a mission to help find and destroy some rockets the Soviet Union left behind from when they invaded Afghanistan. Naturally, we said yes. On November 9th, 2002 while providing security for the demolition team destroying the rockets I suffered a career ending injury. The demo team set off some charges to destroy the rockets in the cave they were in, and in doing this sent a mountainside flying our way. Rocks, fire, and debris filled the air and the earth shook under us like nothing I had ever felt (and growing up in southern California, I felt a lot of earthquakes). I looked all around me and saw rocks landing all around my friends; everything was so loud it was quiet. I looked directly above me and saw nothing. I had one thought at that moment, "God sure did bless me today." And as soon as a period was put on that thought a boulder about the size of a 27 inch TV landed on my left foot and shattered every bone in my foot except my toes. A helicopter came and got me as quick as it could, but not before one of the best medics around did all that he could to save my foot, and my life. I stayed in the hospital in Afghanistan for 3 days before heading back to the states. I was able to see my friends one last time before then and it was bitter sweet...I got to leave, but they had to stay. And I wasn't leaving the way any good soldier wants to leave.

A few surgeries, two years, and countless hours of physical therapy later, I was given a medical discharge from the Army, and I went back home to CA. I was enlisted for three years and four months, and it was also a time in my life I will never forget, and I made friends I will never forget. When I first went back home to CA I realized a lot had changed in my "little" town of Corona. In fact, Corona more than doubled in size and population in the years I was gone. I was trying to figure out what to do with my life, so I decided to "retire" and live off of my VA disability payments and work with my church's youth group. At first I did this because a friend asked me to help out for a while, but I immediately fell in love with working with teenagers. I did this while being retired for a few years and I truly did love the work I did, but at the same time I was feeling more and more like CA was no longer where I wanted to live. I traveled a bit here and there, to South Carolina and Montana a few times each. And every time I was gone I realized that I liked the places I went to more than I liked CA.

So in February of 2007 I packed everything I could in my little Toyota Corolla and moved out to Ohio. I had been to OH countless times and I knew the state fairly well so I was excited and confident with making the move/change in my life. Shortly after moving here I met a short girl with curly brown hair and knew I was in trouble, but I'll get into that later. I found a church and continued working with teenagers, and after being here for 6 months I decided to go back to school and pursue a degree in recreation. After I was done with my first year of school I was on the hunt for a job to help me gain experience in my chosen career path, and luckily enough I landed a really great job that I really love. After running a teen recreation center for the City of Dublin for a summer I was promoted and I am currently overseeing a teen after school program. I have been in Ohio for just over a year and a half, and I couldn't be happier with my decision to move to the Buckeye state.