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Today's Featured Biography

Benjamin Carter

I really didn't graduate with the class of '96. My high school diploma was presented to me in a red cover while wearing a red gown from Franklin High School, North Carolina. But six months of school in NC doesn't replace thirteen years of memories and friends. So, I hope my old classmates don't mind me claiming alliegance to the Yellow Jackets of Vernon High School, Florida. I'm still orange and blue.
So with that said, after not graduating with you guys I moved to Franklin, NC to stay with my fiance, Stacy Porter, and her family. She's the greatest thing that ever happened to me and the love of my life. I look forward to spending the rest of eternity with her. With her help, I was able finish the 4 credits I lacked at Franklin High School in one semester. Later that year Stacy and I got married during Christmas Break on Dec. 20th. We renewed our vows at the Atlanta Temple of the LDS Church on our one year anniversary and were sealed together for time and eternity. She was in her junior year when we initially got married and I had to attend two more weeks to finish the semester. We really didn't have a honeymoon, unless you consider two nights in a cheap hotel room with a bottle of sparkling grape juice and some take-out a honeymoon. One of these days I'm gonna make up for that. Though we were married we still got in trouble for kissing in the hall by my biology teacher. Everybody thought we were going to have a baby and that Stacy would drop out. A year and a half later she graduated with honors and no kids. All of our kids were planned and purposely two years apart. After two years at the local wood flooring plant I had had enough and moved on to become a plumber. We had our first child in Oct. '99 and named him Wesley. He'll be seven soon and He is just like me (poor kid). Okay, he's a lot better lookin' but I can't deny he's my son. After about a year of plumbing I realized that I was a lousy plumber (and so did my boss) and took a job as a Schwans man doing route sales. Another year later I decided that 14-16 hour days and never seeing my family wasn't where I wanted to be. When we were sure that we had conceived our second child I turned in the keys to the Yellow Duck Truck and started selling auto parts. I hated my boss there and he didn't like me much so that lasted about a month and for the next year I jumped around from job to job. Lowes, Pizza Hut, Chicago Rawhide, furniture delivery, landscaping, etc. I joined the U.S. Air Force in June of 2002 about five months after Stacy gave birth to Johnathan Augustus. We call him Gus and he's my little buddy. He's a bit different than Wesley but he's definitely not the postman's son, no mistaking that. I was gone to Basic Military Training at Lackland AFB, TX for seven weeks and was in the band flight. I remember Paul Shipley telling me once that I had no rythm and therefore could never play the drums. Wouldn't you know that they gave me the Triple Drums to play. I would like to say that I proved Paul wrong and became a decent musician but I can't lie. I had no idea what I was doing. After the first week I could at least keep up with the SIMPLE cadences we had to play. After barely making it through BMT (I know, USAF BMT is lame but for a disorganized slowpoke like me it was tough) I was sent to Sheppard AFB, TX to learn Aircraft Fuel Systems Maintenance. That's a fancy name for crawling around in cramped aircraft fuel tanks and smelling like jet fuel all the time while getting cancer. I hate it but in about a year I will be able to train into a different specialty. I wanted to be stationed somewhere out west and I filled out my base listing with everything west of the Mississippi River. I was sent to Ramstein AB, Germany to work on C-130E/H Hercules transport aircraft. Germany is a beautiful country with tons to see and do. I had two kids and lived on base with E-3 pay so I didn't see or do much. I did at least buy a little Volkswagen Scirocco and race it up and down the autobahn. Before we came back to the States in the fall of '05 we took a trip through Bavaria and saw the real Cinderella castle (Neuschwanstein) and Lego Land Deutschland. We toured more castles and the alps before stopping in the Black Forest to buy a cuckoo clock which is almost a requirement. While in Germany, Stacy blessed me again with another child. This time though it was my little girl, Meagan Renee. She looked like a little monkey when she came out but has more than made up for it in the last two years. She makes me want to laugh and cry and shout for joy all at the same time. Stacy kept telling me that she was not a daddy's girl but after deployment for two months she feels otherwise. I am now stationed at Macdill AFB, FL working on KC-135R Stratotankers. I was recently deployed to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. We were supporting B-1 bombers as they blew stuff up in Afghanistan in support of ground troops in the combat zone. For now that's what has been going on in my last ten years. Forgive me for my long-windedness, I'm just bored at the moment.

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