I was born and grew up in the Souther Tier of New York state, in the Chenango valley. I was raised in a small city named Norwich by my father, mother and maternal grandmother. I attended St. Paul's Catholic Elementary School; first at the old building on the corner of South Broad St. and Mitchell St., then moved to the school's present location behind the parish church atop the Pleasant St. hill. Starting in ninth grade, I then Norwich High School, pursuing a Regents Diploma. After high school, I attended Broome Technical Community College for a year and a half. In October, I was involved in an accident as a passenger in a vehicle and I was not able to continue my studies. Once I left the academic ranks, Uncle Sam was eager to emply my services and I was drafted. Before I was inducted, I elected to join the U.S. Navy. I made the Navy my career for 23 years, serving as a Cryptologic Technician, Interpretive, in the fields as a Vietnamese and Russian cryptolinguist, an senior interlligence ananalyst and reporter and a cryptographer. I served in five countries outside the U.S.: The Republic of the Philippines, Republic of Viet Nam, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom. I also served tours of temporary duty on three aircraft carriers, USS Saratoga, USS John F. Kennedy and USS Nimitz. I also served about USS Albany, USS Texas, and USS Caron. My "stateside" tours were spent at the Presidio of Monterey, CA, Goodfellow AFB, Fort Meade and Fort Devens. I retired as a CTIC (Chief Cryptologic Techician, Interpretive) After I retired from military service, I went back to college, obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in Russian and East Asian Area Studies, with a minor in Govetnment. While in school, I became disabled from injuries sustained on active duty. Although fairly disabling, I elected to work with veterans, first as a Disabled Veterans Outreach Program Specialist with the State of Maryland and then as a Veterans Service Representative with the Department of Veteran Affairs. I worked for the VA for about five years until my disability forced me to resign. I then moved to Florida and have become active in volunteering and genealogy.

I was married to the former Pamela Clark-Pelmear in 1970. We separated in September, 1977, and were divorced in February, 1983. I adopted her daughter from her first marriage, Constance Dee, and we had a son in 1973, Matthew Bryon. My daughter has one child, Chelsea, who is now 16. My son and his wife have had two children, Skylar, now 6, and Chase Tanner who is 2. I remain single.

"Moderation is the inseparable companion of wisdom, but with it genius has not even a nodding acquaintance." — Charles Caleb Colton (English sportsman and writer, 1780-1832)

Like most traits, moderation can be good or bad. Moderation while drinking keeps the conversation flowing; however, moderation in political thinking will mark a person as "wishy-washy," kind of like Jimmy Carter.

In politics, I am an Independent. I refuse to be restricted by party. I am what I call a Social Libertarian. I believe that last good President was Dwight Eisenhower. I happen to believe our current President is doing a more-than-competent job so far. He has some good ideas and he's not afraid to take on the big issues. I may not agree with all his policies, but I respect the man for his attempts to change an ingrained system. And I applaud the efforts of this Congress to take on the banking industry to try and regulate fees for credit cards. Some in Congress are finally showing some backbone instead of the normal greed. I also respect my state's senior Senator, Bill Nelson. He recently toured some homes in Florida that were built with Chinese dry wall. He is sensitive to mold and mildew and when he entered several homes, he became ill and had to leave. Now he understands that Congress has a duty to the American people to regulate trade that is hazardous to health. After years of neglect, maybe the FDA will get some funds to hire more inspectors to keep toxic material from entering our country.

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