This is a picture of our son, Kevin, and his lovely wife, Kerrie. She really gives meaning to the phrase "better half". We're really pleased to have her as part of our family. Kevin, on the other hand, well,...er..uh, well, maybe it's best I just drop this subject line. :)
I had always hoped that my son would sometime follow in my footsteps and join the military, but he decided to enlist in the Navy instead. Embarrassed and ashamed as I am, still, there was one good result of his unwise and rash act; he met Kerrie!
Kevin, after boot camp in Orlando, was eventually sent to the Great Lakes to take medical corpsman schooling. After graduating from there, he went to North Carolina and played games with the Marines, as he received training as a combat field medic. The Navy then sent him to Washington D.C., where he served as a pharmacy technician at Bethesda Medical Center. His training here as a combat medic helped him greatly as it was sometimes necessary to dispense prescriptions from a foxhole because of the objects being thrown at him by retired military personnel and their dependents who each thought they should be served first.
After doing this for several years, (and attending college in his spare time) he got bored and requested additional schooling. So the Navy, recognizing the incredible talents, gifts, and skills (all of which, as everyone knows, are genetically transmitted traits)_of this fine young man, sent him to medical laboratory technician school. This is a year long school, very competitive, and very intense. It was while attending this school that he met Kerrie, a fellow student.
Kerrie comes to our family from Ireland, by way of Texas, and is a delight to be around. She's good looking, she's bright, and she thinks that I am OK (for an old guy!). How much better could a young woman be! LOL Click here to see more members of Kerrie's family. When (and if) you wish to return here from that very interesting page created by Kerrie's Aunt Kim, please use your browser's back button.
After graduating from the Navy school (and simultaneously receiving their degrees from George Washington University), both Kevin and Kerrie were assigned to the Navy base at Newport Island, Rhode Island, where they worked in the clinic on base. On August 15, 1999, they took leave and came home to Washington where they were married. It was a lot of fun trying to coordinate the wedding here while they were on the East coast. Thank heaven for the Internet! Here's a couple wedding pictures
K 'N K, not ones to let grass grow under their feet, have blessed us with a grandson. He was 8 lbs, 4 oz, and 20.5 inches. He has been named Aidyn Lars Young. The name, Aidyn, of course, comes from the ancient Celtic and means "My grandpa Rick is about the greatest grandpa in the world". It is fervently appreciated that he got his looks from his mother as I couldn't bear it if his looks had come from his father. I already feel sufficient guilt due to exposing the public to Kevin's looks (which, unfortunately for him, he got from me.) Here's a couple pictures of the future leader of the free world. Click here, NOW!
After finishing their tour in Rhode Island, they were both transferred to San Diego; Kerrie to the medical lab at the Navy hospital in Balboa and Kevin to the Navy's Fleet Surgical Team 3. Fleet Surgical Teams (FSTs) are small groups of about 17 officers and enlisted who comprise an entire mini-hospital in themselves. They have a surgeon, doctor, nurses, corpsmen, lab techs, etc. Their primary function is to be able to be transported on short notice to some place where the existing medical facilities are overwhelmed. Kevin and his team were at sea, aboard the Peleliu, on September 11, 2001 when the cowards attacked. Their group, led by the USS Peleliu, immediately left from Australian waters and headed north where they spent the rest of an extended WestPac cruising about the waters off of the Mid-East. During this time they treated a number of Northern Alliance soldiers who had been wounded and also treated the traiterous coward John I Have No Brains Walker. After completing their cruise, they returned to San Diego where his mother and I, along with several other family members, got to greet him as he stepped onto the dock. If you've never stood at a dock waiting for a loved one's ship to come in from a war-time patrol, you've missed one heck of an emotional experience. Naturally, being a man, I didn't cry but the wind off the bay whipped a lot of sea spray into my eyes.
Kerrie has completed her Navy obligations and has rejoined the ranks of the civilianry, thus now outranking her husband. Shortly before her military discharge, she had another discharge which was even better; she gave birth to a beautiful daughter, Kelsi (Kelsi translates basically as meaning 'my grandpa Rick is about the greatest grandpa in the world').
Here's a recent picture of Aidyn and Kelsi. Click here, NOW!
Kevin was transferred to Texas for Cytology School (taught by the Army so it was probably a more strenuous school than those to which he has been accustomed). Karen & I got to fly to San Diego and then help convoy their two cars up to Palm Springs, Phoenix, and on to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, TX. The school was a year long and there are no shipboard billets for cytologists so hopefully he will no longer have to go to sea. He was also hoping, upon graduation in August 2004, to get transferred to the Bremerton region where he can be close to his sister, Shannon, and we can drive up more often, and, after first telling him he was assigned to Bethesday, MD and then Chicago, the Navy decided that rather than face the wrath of Kevin's mother, they would go ahead and assign him to Bremerton, WA. We flew down to Texas for the graduation and then helped convoy their cars up to Washington. His assignment is for 3 1/2 years so we're really looking forward to being able to enjoy having him and his family so relatively close for a change.