Name:
James Carlson
E-mail:
jtcarl@yahoo.com
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Birthday: 26 May, 1962
Bio:
I was born in Roswell, New Mexico in May, 1962, while my father was in the U.S. Air Force. I grew up in a number of places due to this, but upon my parents' divorce and my mother's subsequent remarriage, we moved to Georgia, just outside of Atlanta, where I grew up.
I did very well in school where I developed a work ethic based on constant study and a thorough retention of information. I also developed personal interests that I would maintain throughout my life, including writing - both fiction and non-fiction - the study of crime, history, computer technology, and art. I also developed an interest in "other places," and a deep and lifelong desire for travel. I've always loved travel, and that was, in fact, the primary reason that I later joined the U.S. Navy.
Beginning in 1986, my career in the navy lasted 16 years, during which time I achieved a rank of first class petty officer as an E-6 Information Technician. I enlisted originally as an Ocean Systems Technician Analyst, a classified rate responsible for analyzing acoustic data retrieved from offshore acoustic sensors and processed at Naval Facilities worldwide. We would use this data to identify and track both submarine and surface marine targets.
I achieved a rank of Ocean Systems Technician Analyst second class by 1994, and was stationed at the following commands: U.S. Navy Naval Facility Brawdy, Wales, United Kingdom from 1986 to 1988; U.S. Navy Naval Facility Dam Neck, Virginia from 1988 to August, 1991; U.S. Navy, Commander, Undersea Surveillance, Pacific, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii from August, 1991 to August, 1994; and U.S. Navy Naval Facility Brawdy, Wales, United Kingdom from 1994 to 1995. I was a member of the decommissioning crew for both Commander, Undersea Surveillance, Pacific and for NAVFAC Brawdy, Wales.
From August, 1991 to August, 1994, while I was stationed at Commander, Undersea Surveillance, Pacific, I was given far more responsibility than I previously had upon being appointed Assistant Staff Oceanographer. This required me to interpret computer modeling systems output in conjunction with environmental conditions for flag-level briefs to determine where, at what depth, and how fast to tow acoustic sensors in order to best discover and track maritime targets. I also held a multi-command advisory status that required me to compose classified technical instructions, and conduct associated requisite training in the use of UNIX-based environmental data modeling systems software designed for federal use by the University of Texas. This also required Fleet level testing of advanced Beta software that was later included in the upgrades to this data modeling system. In a division of only three people that included a Lieutenant Commander, I was also required to learn quickly hardware installation, configuration, maintenance and systems upgrading with trial assessment and problems resolution, as well as classified recording and communications equipment operation and maintenance, in addition to maintaining my normal rating knowledge in support of classified level discovery and tracking of target data. I prepared and presented daily Flag-level briefs on weather and oceanographic conditions Pacific-wide during the six week period that my division officer, a Lieutenant Commander, was giving birth to her child. For this and other duties, I was awarded the Navy Achievement Medal.
In 1994, while I was stationed at NAVFAC Brawdy, Wales, the Ocean Systems Technician rate was canceled, and I changed my rate to Data Processor with a rank of Data Processor second class petty officer. While at Brawdy, I also married another naval petty officer, a Religious Personnelman third class petty officer named Ruth Armijo. We have been happily married for 11 years.
As a DP2, I was sent, with my wife, to U.S. Navy Naval Air Station Sigonella, in Sicily, Italy. While there, the U.S. Navy did away with the Data Processor rate, changing all DPs to Radiomen with a Data Processing specialty. Within two years, this rate was also canceled, and I became an Information Technician. During this period, my responsibilities changed little. I was responsible for the administration of information security strategies and Command-wide training using multimedia software, especially in preparation for Y2K concerns, upon being appointed Command Information Systems Security Assistant. I also composed technical instructions, and prepared the requisite training that I needed to present. My duties also required the installation, configuration and maintenance of security software, as well as more normal hardware installation, configuration and information systems trouble-call assessment and resolution.
When my tour in Sicily ended, I reported for duty to the Office of Naval Intelligence in Suitland, Maryland, at the National Maritime Intelligence Center (NMIC), where I served from 1998 to 2002, when I was involuntarily separated from the U.S. Navy for an acquired seizure disorder, an epilepsy diagnosis. My duties at the Office of Naval Intelligence included software installation, configuration, maintenance and upgrading of in position, secure applications, maintenance of desktop anti-virus and intrusion responsive applications in support of secure communications, and hardware installation, configuration and trouble-call assessment and resolution utilizing Remedy, trouble-call description and assignment software as the Information Technician Representative for the Aerospace Intelligence Division, the tier one trouble-call response system initially set-up shortly after I checked in to the command. For a very short time, I also served as the shift supervisor for the NMIC-wide information systems trouble-call system that was also in place.
As concerns my discharge from service, I had my first seizure in 1999 while in Sicily. No cause was found and there was no repeat until 2001, when I had two within a two month period, which ultimately led to my involuntary separation from service. This was primarily because the seizures were exceptionally violent and long-lasting. I dislocated my shoulders during my second seizure, and all lasted longer than three minutes. I still take medication, and have been seizure-free since starting treatment I was separated by honorable discharge and awarded a 30% medical disability status by the Veterans Administration.
After holding a number of transition jobs, and extensive thought, I eventually restarted my education in pursuit of a degree in Criminal Justice. I believe the study of crime is one of the most important topics we can pursue, because crime enables one to understand more readily the problems of evil in the world, problems like terrorism, homicide and rape, in addition to the sad collection of corollary offenses. The problem with evil is that it makes good people ashamed to be human. Nationality has little or nothing to do with this, although many people mistakenly believe that it does, since evils like ethnic cleansing and concentration camps are perpetrated at a national level. Terrorism has the same unfortunate grasp on humanity as any other evil, which explains why some people want to treat terrorists as international criminals, while others want to treat them as extensions of another country's national will. Due to the time constraints caused by the necessity to combat terrorist acts before they're initiated, neither strategy can work with significant success when that success is measured by the preservation of life worldwide. The reason for this is the dual character that terror possesses, terrorism being both a crime and an attempt to influence national and foreign policy.
The stage we need to work on is global, not national, since the entire world is the stage upon which evil as a human-directed force threatens normal and moral autonomy. Our failure as a nation to properly combat terrorism worldwide has, unfortunately, led to a decline in our status and credibility overseas. I believe that in order to effectively reduce the evil of terrorism in particular, an increase in our status and credibility is necessary. Not only is this goal an honorable one, I am very confident that it is a necessary one, although I must admit, I see no possibility of that ever happening under a Republican administration.
And so, as college goes, I study crime.
Interests:
My interests and enthusiasms are solitary ones. I enjoy writing, art, the study of crime and its motivations, and the study of history. This last is evident in my obsession with the collecting of old newspapers and various ephemera from the past. I also collect books, primarily those autographed by their authors, and those noted for their age. My wife shares many of my interests, so I don't lead the lonely a life one might otherwise predict, just a limited one. The limits, however, are self-imposed, and for that reason they tend to define me.
Like most men and women, however, I'm defined as much by those things I condemn as those I commend and practice - cures on one side, and cuts on the other. I reserve my disdain and condemnation for idiocy, primarily the idiocy typified and demonstrated by the Republican party and its partners in crime - crimes that would put the lot of them in jail in a fair and impartial world. Unfortunately, we don't live in a fair and impartial world, and honest men and women, being in the minority and not willing to break the law or lower themselves to practices reflecting moral standards they're forced to look down on in order to examine, are left with only one typical recourse: telling people how much the G.O.P. sucks and turning off the television whenever that high priest of conservative criminality and ill will, George W. Bush, hops on to spew hatred, stupidity and ineptness. Also, I hate both squash and tomatoes. Go figure...
Blog Created: Wednesday, 26 July 2006
Last Updated: Monday, 6 May 2024 - 11:06 AM MDT
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