My granddaughter enlisted in the Army and will be graduating boot camp next month. Her name is llze. She is now 19 years old and wants to be accepted for Nursing School. Why you ask? She is the first of my family to go into the service since I was drafted into the Army back in January 1968.

She was born in a small village in the European country of Latvia, near Belarus and Poland. Both her biological parents died by the time she turned 6 and she lived in an Orphanage until the age of 10. From there she was “Hosted” by a few different families here in California and was finally adopted by my oldest son Brandon and his wife Miriam. By doing so, she became a Naturalized Citizen of the United States.

While learning English and German through Home School taught by my daughter-in-law Miriam, Ilze graduated in 2024, near her home in Meridian, Idaho. She also speaks Latvian and Russian.

I am very proud of my granddaughter and stand behind her all the way. She is very intelligent, determined and I look for her to be successful in life.

[Personally,] I am a Native Californian, born in San Jose, grew up in Cupertino where Igraduated from high school. I was drafted into the Army in January 1968, did boot camp at Ft. Lewis, Washington. I did on the job training at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina in the Post Dental Unit as Corpsman and Company Clerk. In November 1968, I was deployed to Long Binh, Viet Nam where I was a Corpsman at the 24th Evacuation Hospital and then became Company Clerk half way through my tour until which I came home  - in October 1969. I was not a hero, just one of the lucky ones that came home. Once I came home, I attended College at Pacific University, Oregon and received my Bachelors of Science degree utilizing the GI Bill.