In 1989 I was looking through the want ads for new opportunities and came across this, "The US Army needs pilots." After testing and interviews, I was accepted into the Warrant Officer Flight Training Program. I completed training and was the distinguished honor graduate for the attack helicopter class 91-14. I was witness to the early use of computerized training and simulation efforts and was appalled at the horrific quality. Thus another new field started to be learned and defined. I began designing and developing multimedia and intuitive user experiences for any piece of information I could work with. I built my digital skills here and was infatuated with what the web 1.0 could mean to the distribution of information in the cognitive realm instead of just sales.

Being a Cavalry Officer and gunship pilot was not a bad job title but again, I wanted more. I began working on the side developing graphical html sites and interfaces for large catalog companies making the transition to the internet and away from print. This partnering with a couple of web hosting services in the mid 90s was a plan for what I could do when my military career ended. That decision point came unexpectedly in 1997 after being in a helicopter crash in the desert. I was able to put all my efforts back into building on the work relationships I had been doing on the side. This timing was perfect as the dot.com bubble was entering the frenzy stage and the company I started took off.

Of course when the dot.com party ended, so did that period. By 2003 I was ready to come back and went to one of the things I've always found rewarding - teaching. I taught at Jacksonville University as an adjunct professor in the College of Fine Arts, and started contacting possible partners within the region to take on some smaller consulting work. This reconnecting led to another field, designing and developing interactive training and instructional digital work.

This next phase entered was the wonderful world government and DoD federal contracting. I was initially hired to develop a V-22 pilot training course for the Marine Corps and the US Air Force Special Operations Command as a web delivered series of pilot courses. My ability to apply professional design and interfaces set me up to eventually become the creative director at the current company I work for, responsible for tens of millions of dollars of development for Federal agencies.

Another skill that lent itself to this new field is the leadership and team building similarities. Many of the multi-million dollar projects have 30 or more content and design contributors and the command and control for creative work is easy for me to handle in a leadership role. The confidence of battlefield command experience really is an asset on keeping creative teams feeling free to do their best. It's the exact same human response to support and safety and frees people to perform and do amazing things. Things they never thought they could do or be a part of. There's nothing better than when I can see people on the team grow together and become invested in something larger than themselves. You can't hide those types of smiles and successful results.

I'm at a point in my life that it's time to take on a new challenge, phase, chance to do something I never thought I'd get to do. I want to have this be the culmination of all my previous experiences. I want to make a home, a place where it's more than a team this time - it's a family. I suppose it's my way of coping with 'empty nest' syndrome. My daughter has gone college and with the transition fading into history, I find I have an undeniable desire to do something new and great.