I grew up in a small town in the center of Texas that was best known as the hunting capital of the World which was Harper, TX.
People would drive from all over just to hunt here, and people would drive from austin or san antonio to eat at my grandmothers Longhorn Cafe.
Had a typical small town upbringing where we worked all kinds of local jobs just to make a buck, and in the evenings and weekends us kids would gather at the local pool hall to see who was the best.
During the summer of my Junior and Senior year in high school, I met my father for the first time and went to live with him overseas as he worked in the oil field.
This introduced me to places like Aberdeen Scotland, Port Gentil, Gabon, West Africa and Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.
Toured my first offshore rig for a couple of weeks in the North Sea, and worked for AMF Tuboscope in Port Gentil and lived my days off at Las Palmas.
This was a real eye opener for somebody like me and I loved it.
After coming back to Texas in the middle of my senior year, I obtained my GED from Schreiner College, worked in the oil field a bit in Ozona, TX and then set my sights on Hollywood and Vegas on the way to Bakersfield, CA.
Ended up joining the navy in Port Hueneme, CA where I found out I was very good with technology.
Spent 6 years in there as a Radioman, and self taught Electronics Technician, and obtained my license as a Amateur Radio Operator, first licensed as KA1JGK and later as N5IVV.
After the Navy, I worked as an electronics technician doing mil-spec burn in testing as a subcontractor for Texas Instruments.
After my divorce, I began working as a software contractor and worked all around America from 88 to 03.
Suddenly, in 03 something changed.
I had always been able to find better than average paying work, and then I couldn’t find any work even though my skills were as sharp as ever.
The last 20 years have been rough going from the top 10% of wage earners to the bottom 1% of wage earners, but it has given me the knowledge to challenge everything you know about jobs.
I have watched for 20 years where a few of us technology types couldn’t find work to recently where none of the American technology workers are finding jobs.
And it is beginning to happen in many other occupational groups like Truck Drivers, Accountants, School Teachers, Medical and others.
This is why I have decided to run for the United States Senate.
Because I believe your family should never have to worry about jobs when they have put in the time and effort to be the best at what they do, no matter their age.
And no other candidate whether they be republican or democrat, are even talking about jobs.