August 2nd, 1990

Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait while I was in Basic Training, and everything changed.

There are many, though, but that's what came to mind.

The day I found out my ex hired a lawyer and tried to charge me rent to live in my own house after she walked out on me. Bitch.

I was out on terminal leave & was at my parents. I was scheduled to go to the eastern part of the state the next day for a job hunt and my dad wanted me to go with him to help cook at a party he was invited to.

I didn't want to go, but mom & dad said I WAS going with them. I met this really sweet girl who gave me her phone number and told me she was moving to Raleigh the next week and maybe we could go catch a show.

Best thing I've ever done. We've been together for 18 years since then.

August 18, 1965 Operation Starlite Viet-Nam

Got a few of those.

Some good:
The birth of my daughter. Passing my first bar exam. Marrying my wife. My first win in court.


Some not:
Learning my mom had terminal cancer and then when she passed. My first loss in court. The time I almost lost an eye.

Yes. A bad car crash I was involved in back in 1999. The new direction I had to go in to back on my feet lead me to meet my wife and family that I happily have today. I cannot imagine life any other way. That crash was a blessing in disguise. I truly believe everything happens for a reason.

As a teen, working a part time job, boss introduces me to the new girl and says: "Don't hit on this one."

Been together 25 years now.

The boss isn't always right.

Atlanta Airport, Washington's Birthday weekend, 1972, about 1950 hours.
I'd graduated from AIT early in the day. My orders had me PCSing to Valley Forge Hospital. However, there was a snowstorm.
Late getting in to Atlanta, a gate agent told me my gate was across the airport and, if I ran, I might make it.
In full run, I look up and see a woman in an Army uniform. She's also running and has a large bunch of paper flowers from Mexico. Then she slips and falls. I help her get up and realize she's a nurse lieutenant. I'm a Pfc. Once up we start running together. Talking we discover we're trying for the same flight. I run ahead and get to the gate to watch the plane's red taillight leave. The nurse comes up breathing hard and grabs hold of me.
Turns out, we were both going to Valley Forge. The snowstorm kept us in Atlanta for 5 hours, the 5 hours to get a ride, then stuck in King of Prussia for another 5 hours.
We got married 5 months later. Still married today.

Mine was Wednesday, February 19, 1992, 7:36 PM.

quote:

seems most of us have someone who lead us to our defining moment. Seems like a great time of year to remember those we are thankful for.

Let us also not forget that we may be "that person" to another. Our actions may determine the course of the lives of others.

Lots of dates/events that had significant impact on my life. I don't know that I could pick just one.

The most significant event and the dates surrounding "it" would be deciding to enlist in the Marines. I simply can't imagine my life without that foundation as a young man and what lessons I use to this day. For me that fits the definition of a defining moment, one that has lasted a lifetime.

The birth of my son, the death of my father, the day I met my wife of now 27 years... Simple decisions to follow up on a job offer in an IS department to travel and learn how to pull cable led to a 25 year career as an IT professional, starting my own business, etc. All are moments in time that forever altered the course of my life and those in it.

In the end, as I contemplate another birthday in a couple of days, and know that I have alive more years than I have left, I have to say I have a wonderful life.

I hope somewhere along the way I have touched a life or two the way that mine has been, and that I leave a better version behind than was here before I arrived.

Spent a Memorial Day filling out a job application, interviewing and testing for a new job. It was my only day off in a month. I'd left the wife and kids at the mall figuring it would be a 1/2 hour. 5 hours later I had a new job, the wife was at her wits end, this was before cell phones for me.

Tripled my salary, and had better hours. 21 years ago, it's changed my life. I'd never be in MN.

It was a lark filling out that job ap.

I have several, but they all are related to walking in to German class in college and seeing a girl I thought was beautiful. Turned out I knew her brother.
Everything else followed from that--having kids, going to medical school (with 2 little kids); becoming a serious Christian.
That was 53 years ago, I'm looking at her cooking Thanksgiving dinner, and she's still beautiful.
Two of the three kids will be with us today, along with our daughter's husband and the little girl my little girl is carrying.
Hard to write through the mist.

Mine are pretty easy to identify:

July 1975 my father's death and my world changed.

January 2005 got married and my world changed.

December 2015 diagnosed terminally ill, my world and spirit changed.

Several.

I remember signing and placing the completed dormitory application in an envelope for the bible college I was all set to attend. On a bit of a whim, I drove to a recruiter's station, and about an hour later was signed up for a MEPS appointment.

I went up, did my pre-screening, said the oath of enlistment, and entered the inactive reserve while waiting on a training date. I remember sitting in the parking lot and tearing up that envelope. Then I told my parents.

16 years later, our section chief was going around the break room reminding everyone who had a pt test to get their clinic appointment made for the various joint shots and percocet refills. required to pretend like we could still pass the fit test. My knees were so swollen from the days work I could barely move from the computer station where I was working through yet another pointless CBT. Another conscious decision to go a different route.

What a crazy season of life.

It's taken a few years, but I really like the one I'm in now. Still, those two decisions changed my life considerably.

August 3-5, 1981. A whole bunch of FAA air traffic controllers went on strike and then got fired. I was offered a job very shortly after that. It was my dream job for 29 years. Another big event was my joining the USAF in 1977. I needed the discipline it provided back then. I had to grow up.

Mine was sitting in a meeting with the high school college counselor. At the time I spent all my free time in the shop for the drama department. I built sets, rigged lights, basically ran the behind the scenes show for a very highly regarded drama department.
The college counselor asked me what I liked doing and my simple one sentence response was “I like building things”. She asked me why go to college, there are plenty of people who needed things built here and told me there was no need to rack up tons of debt.
I went through one year of college to appease my parents and then began my trade. I’ve been a mason for almost 14 years now. I am a foreman for the largest construction company in the world. I would have never met my wife and had my children if I went to school for 4 years.
I was asked to speak to the kids at my old high school about the trades and how a kid with no college degree can make $100k a year through hard work, determination, and problem solving skills.

There were two.
First was watching the shitbag rednecks toss a molotov cocktail into my 1963 Anglia Ford in highshcool.

Then the day my first wife died.

And they wonder why I have trust issues.

Yup.
One really big one would have been the day my brother died.

I was 22 years old, working 3 + part time jobs to go to school (wasn't on the Mommy/Daddy scholarship plan or interested in student loans). I was also a Combat MP in the National Guard. I decided to go active duty and after taking tests and gong through my options, I ended up in the Air Force as a Security Police/Law Enforcement Specialist and K9 handler. My first base for 3 delightful years was Wheeler AFB in Hawaii.

Sept 09, 2010
For the second time (about 17 years apart) I stepped off the bus and onto C/515th Cav territory for basic training at Fort Knox, KY. The first time was OSUT (19D) this time just plain ol' basic.

Then in March of 2014 I touched down into Bagram on my way to Helmand and Kandahar to be an MRAP/Mine Roller Driver as part of a PSD team.

I would say that is one of the more defining moments of my life.