Recruit Training at Naval Station Great Lakes - Chicago, IL.
Apprentice Training for Aviation Electronics Organizational Level (ATO) at Naval Training Center - Chicago, IL.
Naval Air Station - Lemoore, CA.

One of my favorite memories from boot camp, while doing PT, our drill instructors would make us pull out our dog tags, hold them above our heads and sing "Jingle Bells" while the tags rattled together as we ran.

Another memory from boot camp was during our Pre-PT stretching, one drill instructor would always say "Do it like..(insert any item that stretches)..ANNND STRETCH!" One day he stopped after the "Do it like," and pointed to me, without hesitation I said, "GUMBY!" I thought he was going to fall over from laughing so hard. It was probably one of the few times we ever saw this particular drill instructor laugh or smile, so that was pretty cool to be able to make him laugh without intending to. After that, it became a daily routine for the drill instructor to have me say my line that he loved. One day I tried to change my line, that didn't go well, he said, "NO! DO IT RIGHT! Or you'll run until I'm tired!"

While stationed at Naval Air Station in Lemoore, I really enjoyed watching the F-18s fly over while performing training exercises, and dreamed that some day I could pilot an F-18. I remember being a kid and seeing the movie "Top Gun," which really sparked my interest in fighter jets, thus turning into a dream to be a Fighter Pilot some day.