Rick was nominated by Christine McKee,

Rick enlisted in the Marines in 1984 and served 9 years, deployed three times with one as part of the Marine Expeditionary Force for Desert Shield/Desert Storm. After leaving the Marines we returned home to Arizona and he missed the military life so he enlisted in the National Guard and once he found out he missed active duty life joined the Army and was assigned to the DC Area then to Germany where his deployments began. He served three tours in Iraq and three to Afghanistan as part of several different units finally ending up in Fort Bragg as part of the famed 2nd Battalion 82 Airborne Combat Aviation Brigade where he made his final deployment and trained several young soldiers in the ways of a combat effective unit before deciding to retire and let the new generation carry on what he started. Rick retire after 28 years in the military 25 of which were on active duty on the 1st of October 2012. Rick now is employed as a contract aircraft mechanic here at Fort Eustis supporting TRADOC and its mission to train the new generation of Aviation Mechanics.