I had a fairly normal childhood attending Public schools in the Los Angeles City School District. I played Little League Baseball and Pop Warner Midget Football and had a leadership position in my Sea Explorer Scout Unit. In High School I played "B" and Varsity Football in the Fall and during the Spring I was a pole vaulter on our track team. I was active in student government and I was a Math Major preparing for College. I had my share of problems with authority figures and other students. I had to learn that the only way to handle a bully was to stand up to him and challenge him, and I had my share of fights, especially in Junior High School. My reputation preceded me into High School so I was usually able to talk my way out of a fight. In Junior High I worked with my mom on the John F. Kennedy presidential campaign. I was waiting for my Second Period History Teacher to arrive when his assassination was announced. My History teacher never came back to school. It was worse than having the air knocked out of you. Nothing was the same again.
Religion was not a big factor in my life although there were occasions where I tried to learn more such as when I took catechism classes at the Lutheran church we attended (but that didn't last long). While sitting in Church, I would sometimes have a strange feeling that I should be at the Altar doing what the Minister was doing. I couldn't explain it, but that is where I felt I belonged. My mother had her astrology done and all that the astrologer would tell her is that one of her children would be religious, possibly in the priesthood. She did not know who of her six children that would be and I never discussed my feelings with her. When I was in my early 20's I had my own astrology done and it showed that I was a very old soul and that the dew drop was about to merge with the Ocean. I had no idea what that meant.
I graduated from High School in June of 1964. I attended a year of Junior College and during the summer break of 1965 some friends and I decided to go to Hawaii to surf. I liked it there so much that I decided to stay. I got a job as a Desk Clerk at a hotel and did the night audit. The Viet Nam War was heating up and it didn't take long for the Draft Board to find me. I got drafted into the Army and reported to Fort Bliss Texas in January, 1966. Brrrrrrr. Shock and cold.
During Basic Training I gave in to some indoctrination program and signed up for Officer Candidate School (OCS) because I had some college. Later, I changed my mind and dropped it. This messed up my Orders for where I was supposed to go after Basic so I was held over for a couple of weeks while they tried to decide what they were going to do with me. They were going to send me to Fort Knox, Kentucky for Advanced Training in the Armor School for Tanks and then to OCS in Armor. They decided to send me there anyway for the Advanced Training. When that was done I was again held over for a few weeks until they finally decided to give me three choices. One: I could go directly to Viet Nam. Two: I could go to Germany to train with a unit that was preparing to go to Viet Nam. Three: I could go to the Non-commissioned Officer (NCO) Military Academy to train to become a Drill Instructor. This was a new program and they were about to graduate their first class. They were sending all of the experienced NCO's to Viet Nam and they needed people to train the troops. They figured that if they could turn a soldier into an Officer in six months that they could turn one into a Drill Instructor in six weeks. This meant a promotion from Private to Corporal upon graduation and no Viet Nam. I became a Drill Instructor.
I was an assistant to a Staff Sgt for one eight week Basic Training cycle after which he was sent to Viet Nam and I was on my own. I was in charge of a WWI era 2-story wooden barracks and up to 50 trainees and all of their weapons and equipment. The cracks in the walls were like mini windows. When the temperatures got down to 4 degrees F., the water in the butt cans would freeze solid by morning. I was a Drill Instructor for eighteen months and trained eight groups of men. We often had back to back eight-week training cycles where we would graduate one class on Friday and pick up another one on Monday. The Army had a program called McNamara's Hundred Thousand. They were trying to train men as quickly as possible and they were not very selective in who they drafted. I had everything from poorly educated wino's and hoods off of the street to stock brokers with advanced degrees. I became the Company First Aid NCO and Weapons NCO and was the go-to guy for all problems after hours. I also had special Riot Control training because of the campus unrest concerning the war. Two months before my honorable discharge from the Army in January, 1968 I earned the rank of Sgt. E-5 and the Good Conduct Medal with Letters of Commendation through the entire Chain of Command from the Secretary of the Army on down to our local command.
I went back to Los Angeles and got a job. What a let down and culture shock that was. I thought going into the Army was culture shock. I went from having great responsibility to performing a routine and very dull task. My best buddy from the Army got out two months before I did and one night he called to offer me his old job as a courier for a conglomerate company. At night I could train to become a computer operator as he did and I did eventually become a computer operator. In January of 1969 I went back to college, Los Angeles City College, on the GI Bill by working at night and going to school 3/4 time during the day. In the summer of 1970 I got married and started raising a family.
One day at school I noticed a lot of students milling around. Some students put on a mock play of students being killed at Kent State. From my second floor math class I could observe about a dozen people seeming to stir things up and manipulate the crowd. They were hard core and disciplined and reminded me of Che Cueverra. My military training in counter insurgency tactics helped me spot them. All of a sudden about five of them came rushing toward my building. I could hear them running up the stairs and they burst into my classroom. They were looking for someone that they thought was taking pictures. My teacher sat frozen behind his desk. I immediately walked to the front of the class and commanded them to leave telling them that what they were looking for wasn't here. To every one's surprise, they immediately left.
On another day I was sitting in the Student Union trying to study. Two guys at a table next to mine were talking about stuff that I had never heard of. I thought to myself that in all of my 23 years or so I had never heard of this stuff. They were talking about a book called "None Dare Call It Conspiracy" written by Gary Allen as a Doctoral Thesis to prove that there was no conspiracy. During his research he had to change his mind because he had uncovered proof that there was a conspiracy to undermine our Constitutional Republic, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, our Free Market Economy, our Money and all that America stands for. I had a pretty developed sense of patriotism and this really stirred me up. I got the book and read it. My own research for speeches in Speech Class confirmed some things and uncovered others. I used articles from easily obtained weekly magazines such as Time, U.S. News and World Report, Life and others. In one speech I kept calling my fellow students "comrades" because as I explained at the end of the speech, I wanted them to start getting used to the term. It kept their attention during the speech. I found out some awful stuff about Fluoride and how they used it during the Watts Riots to calm the crowd. They put the Fluoride into the water system because Fluoride makes people passive, apathetic and willing to accept authority. Think about that!
I received my Associate in Arts degree in Business in the Winter of 1971 and transferred to San Fernando Valley State College which later became California State University, Northridge before I graduated. We soon had a second child and it was rough. I was gone all of the time between work and school and then had heaps of homework on the weekend. My wife also worked. There was a lot of stress in the family and at school and at work. I kept thinking about my experiences, the assassination of Kennedy, my years in the Army, "None Dare Call It Conspiracy", problems at home, problems at school, problems at work; it all became an overwhelming burden to bear. I worked alone at night as a computer operator and one night in 1972 I collapsed to my knees. A friend in Junior High School had taught me the "Hail Mary" and I knew the "Our Father". These were the only prayers that I knew and just kept saying them over and over for a very long time. Eventually I just started talking to God and laying all of this stuff out to Him. It just didn't make sense. When people have a problem they look for and get a solution. For some reason no solutions were coming forth and it seemed to be getting worse. Finally I just told God that if there were anything that I could do to help Him solve the problems on earth then please show me what to do.
Immediately the room became brilliant with an indescribable Light unlike any light I had ever seen. Was it a hundred or a thousand times brighter than the well lit room that I worked in? There was no comparison to it. The Light was pure Love and brilliant as the sun but it did not hurt my eyes. I felt a sense of Peace come over me. I knew my prayer was heard and God was answering; He would show me where to go and what to do.
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