Milestones in My Life
 | 1946 ¾
born in the hospital of Barksdale Air Force Base, close to Boosier City,
which is near Shrevesport, Louisiana, to:
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We left Louisiana for southern California when I was but three months old. I haven't been back since (unless you count passing through). And yes, that birth-year makes me a Baby-Boomer.
| 1950 ¾ Moved to Tucson, Arizona, with my parents and two sisters, Janet Ann and Judy Elizabeth as my dad started work as a civilian instructor pilot for the U.S. Air Force; my third sister, Virginia Lee, was born two years later |
| 1957 ¾ Moved to Dexter, Missouri, as my dad took another instructor job with the USAF after they closed down the training base near Tucson |
| 1960 ¾ Moved to San Jose, California, after the USAF closed yet another base, and my folks decided not to stay with the Air Force and head south, but to strike out west, an act of daring I still admire, four kids in a Plymouth station wagon towing all their possessions in a home-made trailer |
| 1964 ¾ Graduated from William C. Overfelt High School and entered the U.S. Air Force Academy near (not in) Colorado Springs, Colorado |
| 1968 ¾ Graduated from USAFA. Color-deficient vision (which probably explains some of the colors you see on this web-site) kept me out of any kind of flying job and the next-best choice, Air Intelligence, pretty much dooming me to be a second-class officer ("Our mission is to fly and fight, and don't you forget it!"), though I did enjoy my work as a Signals-Intelligence Flight Commander, commanding nearly 100 men as a second lieutenant, at Clark Air Base in the Republic of the Philippines, in direct support of the Vietnam Conflict |
| 1971 ¾ Married Rita Melba Rogers in North Hollywood, California, on my way from an assignment as a Student Squadron Commander at Goodfellow AFB, next to San Angelo, Texas, to an assignment with Joint Intelligence, Alaskan Command, at Elmendorf AFB near Anchorage, Alaska; also promoted to captain around that time |
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1973 ¾ Resigned my regular commission and moved back to San Angelo to write a book about Fort Concho, the "Buffalo Soldiers" stationed there, and the court-martial of the first black graduate of West Point, but discovered that to get a grant from the government back then, you had to be nearly finished with the book, not just starting it, so I was thrown abruptly (by circumstances and lack of research on my part) into my civilian career |
| 1974 ¾ , with me holding her hand, Rita gave birth to our daughter Tanya McMurry at a small hospital where they hadn't even heard of Lamaze, much less taught it; we used a paperback bought at the local bus station; the first amazing day of my life |
| 1975 ¾ Moved to The Colony, a suburb of Dallas, Texas, to further my career |
| 1977 ¾ , Rita gave birth to our daughter Diana Marie at a small hospital in McKinney, Texas, which, despite its proximity to Dallas, proved more backward than San Angelo; if I hadn't carried a letter from our obstetrician, I wouldn't have gotten as far as the labor room and still wasn't allowed into the delivery room; I watched with my nose against the window; the second amazing day of my life |
| 1977 ¾ Moved to Bedford, New Hampshire, to launch my career with Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) |
| 1979 ¾ Moved to Aurora, Colorado, a suburb of Denver |
| 1983 ¾ Rita divorced me; I met Jeanne at the divorce-recovery workshop that my ex-wife insisted that only I needed to go to |
| 1986 ¾ , married Jeanne Ruth Wise Blakley and became step-father to Barbara Kay Blakley and Scott Edwin Blakley, amazing people all |
| 1992 ¾ DEC de-hired, downsized, or booted me, thus another kick-start for another phase of my career, both as a computer consultant and a writer |
| 2000 ¾ Started marketing my science-fiction novel Seeds of Disaster, hence this web-site and other efforts |