In 1988, I was stationed in Panama with the Airborne Infantry unit down there. It was so much better than the coffee they were serving us in the mess hall. Since then I have tried coffees from all over the world and am really fascinated at how different coffees from different areas can taste. The Army moved me from Panama to Fort Campbell, Ky. In late 1989. I thought it would be pretty cool to ser
ve in the storied 101st Airborne Division, even if the division was no longer Airborne and all the Soldiers in it were dirty nasty legs. I was in B Co. 2/187 RAKKASANS. We deployed to Saudi Arabia in September of 1990 and my unit took part in the largest and deepest Air Assault operation in military history. Hundreds of helicopters carried our division 150 miles inside Iraq where we fought the world's 4th largest Army (before we were finished with them). I ended up being honorably discharged in 1996 via the medical board. Jumping out of perfectly good airplanes and carrying 100 plus pounds on my back for long distances over the years had taken a toll on my knees. After the Army, I went to work at the Army's Maneuver Battle Lab experimenting with new equipment and concepts for the Army. I managed a team of 5 other former Soldiers in the Unmanned Systems Team. While there, we worked with another former Soldier to develop and test a Lightweight Shotgun System (2 pounds, 11 ounces). I ended up taking 200 of those guns to Afghanistan in 2003 to train elements of the 10th Mountain Division on its use and employment. That shotgun now hangs on display at The National Infantry Museum. I left the Battle Lab in 2011 and started UNEQ Consulting with my wife Dawn. It was going very well. We had major contracts and business was good. That all changed on November 1st 2013. That day I was working at our test facility in Eufaula, Alabama. I fell off a ladder from 18 feet and landed on my head on concrete. Four skull fractures, severed VIII Cranial Nerve, subdural hematoma, massive brain bleed, catastrophic Traumatic Brain Injury. I lost all the hearing in my left ear and most of it in my right ear. One of the skull fractures was at the back of my head, where the Primary Visual Cortex resides. It "shorted out", the optic nerve and left me with a condition called Oscillopsia- everything in my field of view moves up down and left and right when I am moving. I spent 2.5 months at The Shepherd Center in Atlanta, learning to walk again, deal with hearing loss, think straight etc...
All that to get back to coffee. My wife got me a coffee roaster for Christmas last year and some unroasted coffee beans. Found out I was pretty damn good at roasting coffee beans. I saw this as a gift and learned long ago that when you are given a gift or talent by God, it is your duty to share it with the world. Convoy Road Coffee Roasters is my comeback!
