Our Family Journey

Debby, my wife, and I met through pure chance in November 1985.  Both of us had independently decided to enjoy the same three day Carnival cruise to the Caribbean.  I was traveling by myself and she was traveling with her aunt.  For those interested in a vacation cruise, both Debby and I recommend a five or seven day cruise.  Three days was just too short of a vacation cruise.

Some how we met on the ship the first day.  Perhaps it was my Irish charm, or my cavalier and roguish character, or perhaps I was the well dressed man that women like to be seen with.  She has never said and I have never asked.  I took a liking to her as quickly as she took a liking to me.  Just as we were heading our separate ways she gave me her home phone number and home address.  We were soon talking long distance on the phone every night (no internet, internet chat rooms, or instant messaging back in those days).

At the time of the cruise I was performing temporary duties as an accelerated freefall and High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) instructor on the 23rd AF Mobile Training Team at Eglin AFB Florida.  However, I was actually a USAF Pararescueman permanently assigned to an air rescue squadron at McClellan AFB in northern California.

After the cruise I returned to Eglin AFB to teach one last class before going back to McClellan AFB.  In our talk it was decided I would visit Debby and meet her family.  I was there visiting for a week, but had to get back to McClellan AFB because I had permanent change of assignment orders to report to my new duty station  in England before the end of January 1986.  Before the end of December I had asked Debby to marry me and she said yes.

Debby knew she would soon be living in England once we got married, she did not know I had to be in Hawaii two days after the wedding to help teach another freefall and HALO class.  However, as long as I paid for the travel she could come with me.  We were on the island of Oahu, Hawaii for thirty days.  One of my fellow instructors owned a large condominium and extended the invitation for me and Debby to say in the spare bed room.

Although it was a working vacation for me, Debby had the wives and girl friends of the other instructors and the pararescuemen assigned to Hawaii that we were training to keep her company and busy.  Two of the wives I knew quite a long time and in addition to scolding me about marring a young girl that knew nothing about the military, they made sure she was not sitting around doing nothing.

I also had plenty of time off and we made sure we put all that off time to good use.  Some of that time included getting her a military dependant ID card and passport so I could get her to England, but most of our time was spent being the typical tourists.  The picture to the left is of us on top of Diamond Head after hiking the Diamond Head Trail looking back towards Waikiki Beach.  Besides doing brunch and seeing some shows at the Hale Koa Hotel and other hotel we went to several luaus.  Our favorite was the Germaines's Luau.  We basically explored as much of the island of Oahu as we could to include boat toursof Pearl Harbor and other areas of the island.

I took leave enroute to England after my working vacation in Hawaii.  We visited southern California, stopped by Indiana to ship her belonging to England, and then visited New York City.  While in California we visited Disney Land Universal Studios and Six Flags Magic Mountain not to mention spending some time with my parents and siblings.

Our next stop was Indiana primarily for the purpose of packing her belonging she wanted in England with her and getting these possessions shipped. 

Our final stop before crossing the Atlantic to England from JFK International Airport was New York City.  While there we visited my grandmother in The Bronx.  Not only were we there for the 4th of July firework celebrations we also were celebrating participants with thousands of other people for the July 5, 1986 opening of the restored Statue of Liberty.  We kept very busy visiting the American Museum of Natural History, Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, Central Park, and doing a lot of other being the tourist activities.

We flew out of JFK International Airport to the London Heathrow International Airport. Once we cleared customs we took the London Tubes to the train station and took the rails to the town of Woodbridge in Suffolk England.  The train station in Woodbridge is only five blocks from the two bedroom flat I had leased when I first arrived in the United Kingdom eight months earlier. 

Pictured to the left, Debby quickly fell in love with the third floor flat.  It was one block from the main markets of town, the first floor had a ladies hair saloon and a butcher shop and bakery were just across the street.  The picture of the flat was taken from the entrance of the local pub which served lunch and dinner meals.  An indoor swimming pool, a movie theater and several fine dining restaurants .were only a five or sis minute walk from the front door.

Within a week of our arrival Debby discovered she was pregnant.  So our first child was a honeymoon baby.  My frequent gone for days and then return for a few days contributed to the second almost being an Irish Twin (siblings whose births are less than twelve months apart) as the second arrived little bit more than eighteen months after the first.  Although we do not have Irish Twins and Debby lacks Irish ancestry, we do share the Irish luck (faith, hope, love and luck).

I was assigned the rescue and special operations squadron based on RAF Woodbridge and the performing of my military duties resulted in me being away from home as often as I was home.  Debby quickly established strong friendships with some other other military wives and she found a couple of good friends in the local community.  One of her closest friends who also had her first child a month before Debby owned and operated a small tea and coffee shop in the town market.  So it became the working mom employment for Debby where she could bring the baby to work with her.

Having two children didn't slow down our traveling much.  Debby and I and our son and subsequently sons visited London, Wales, Scotland, and Germany.  The closeness to the railroad station and the convenience of being able to buy travel passes good for a period of time made traveling very affordable.  When we went to Germany to visit my grandmother's sister and other cousins in Bremerhaven Germany we went by train which took us to the ferry (there was no Channel Tunnel yet) where we boarded another train in Belgium that took us to Bremerhaven.  It was quite the adventure and it was much easier and cheaper traveling by train with two small children than it was to fly.

My next tour of duty assignment in January 1989 took us to Scott AFB, Illinois which is very close to St. Louis Missouri.  Debby wanted to be a working mom but after discussing a few things it was decided getting a bit more academic respectability above and beyond a high school diploma would be better than working.  She was soon enrolled in the local community college.  Her efforts resulted in her being awarded two Associate of Applied Science degrees, the first in in Business Management and the second in Hospitality and Food Management.  She also was awarded an Associate in Science degree.

The Food Services and Hospitality degree resulted in her assisting the executive chef doing the food preparations and hospitality services for the 1992 PGA championship in St Louis, Missouri.  Shortly before this PGA event Debby decided she wanted a baby girl and by luck she was pregnant again and it turned out to be the girl she wanted.

The Air Force had decided to restructure and downsize its organization and this resulted in me getting assigned to Langley AFB Virginia a month after our third child was born.  It was a short assignment just barely lasting twelve months and as quick as we got to Langley we found ourselves moving to Nellis AFB Nevada.

Nellis AFB is the northern boundary of Las Vegas Nevada.  Although Debby enjoyed Las Vegas, she did so with just herself and the children as I was deployed to Southwest Asia and other locations just about the whole two years.  I was gone so long my daughter didn't recognize me for the few days I was home.  I retired from the Air Force after 23 active duty years of service because of high year of tenure and accumulating injuries that made it difficult to continue performing pararescue duties.  Las Vegas was getting too crowded for our liking and I always wanted to live in Alaska, so we packed up and went north to Alaska not knowing we're we would live and what jobs we would find.

We took our time driving from Las Vegas Nevada to Anchorage Alaska after I retired from the Air Force.  We took our time and camped in various camp grounds in Idaho, Canada and Alaska during the two months it took us to get to Anchorage.  We got to Anchorage Alaska without any difficulties or hardships and the picture to the right is our family portrait taken just before our first Christmas in Alaska. 

Initially we rented a three bedroom duplex, but after renting for three years we bought a 5-bedroom house.  About a year after buying our house we added a  four-legged member of the family and she is seen in our Christmas 2000 family Christmas card portrait..

We are quite happy here in Alaska.  The only disadvantage we have found is the expense of buying a shortness travel ticket to fly to anyplace outside of Alaska..  Driving through Canada is a bit more difficult since 9-11 as that tragic event caused the requirement to possess a valid passport when crossing cross the border.

After all these years our Irish luck (faith, hope, love and luck) is still strong with us.  We hope you enjoyed reading about how our family journey began and a little bit about the path we traveled during our continuing journey.

Debby is successfully using her entrepreneurial skills as