EAS

I have had a rather rough transition, the details in their entirety I shall not disclose, but here the way a few things went down. I moved to Chicago and actually ended up living with Justin Griffith for the first month. That was interesting.

I was attempting to transition from Active Duty to the Reserves and then enroll in college. The transition into the Reserves did not go as planned. As part of the transition for the Reserves I was supposed to get a 6 month extension for healthcare – that didn’t happen. So I was suddenly unemployed, without a house, health insurance, income, and months away from college…oh and my wife was six months pregnant. The joys!

Welcome to Chicago

I continued doing what work I could do in regards to my activism while attempting to maintain my morale. I ended up getting a place to live.

Someone attempted to doxx me as a response to me reposting Chris Rodda’s blog. I deleted their comment as the ended up doxxing a 70+ year old retired Chicago city bus driver who is an army veteran that holds the same name as me. A little fact: My entire family lives in Chicago. There are more individuals with my last name in the Chicago area than in all the rest of the United States combined. I’m a first generation American – we all immigrated here from Germany after WWII.

So we moved in and then the fun happened. December 19, the day after my last blog post, I got in a car accident. Afterwards I pulled into a parking lot by the Department of Motor Vehicles and found myself surrounded by a dozen hispanic men. They forced me back into my car (one rode in my car) while the rest of them piled into two SUV’s – one in front and one behind me. I was then “escorted” to another city where they “fixed” my car and demanded $2100 for the work. At the complex I was taken to many more of their family showed up, so I was clearly outnumbered.

My car was trashed and these guys found out where I lived. I paid them the money and got out alive and unharmed. And then they demanded another $4500 for my car. I contacted the authorities and my insurance company. They retrieved my vehicle and these gentlemen have stopped harassing me…but I’m applying for my concealed carry nonetheless. So the authorities and my insurance company are looking into these guys and are forcing them to pay the $6700 worth of damage to my now-totaled car.

All of that is a very condensed telling of the last 6 weeks. It’s been hell – all of that with a wife who’s about to give birth.

Contrary to popular belief

I am still a Marine. I did finally get the paperwork resolved (after three long months) with the Reserves and things are certainly looking up. In all this time I did attend a conference in NY with Campus Crusades for Christ, attended another church, have meetings set up with pastors, and am reaching out to the secular community to see what we can do for the future. Oh, I also met a couple Congressman. They seemed to like what I had to say. We shall see.

I’ve encountered a lot of military atheists running into problems and I’m hoping that I can help now. If anything I could use the help of another atheist activist working with me. It’s time-consuming but it’s totally worth it.

So that’s where I’ve been.