Neil Bowers:  

All through my school years, I was very quiet and painfully shy, but at the same time I actively resisted following the crowd or chasing the prevailing norms. As a result, my social circle in those years was fairly small. I was a member of the Class of '78, but graduated early (summer of '77) to attend California Baptist College in Riverside. I joined the Navy in 1979, and spent 20 years as a Navy Hospital Corpsman. While on staff at the Navy and Marine Corps Reserve Center in Gary, Indiana, training Marine Corps reservists, I met and married my wife, Lynn. Later, for a period of three years, my family and I lived on the Island of Sicily, Italy, while I was stationed at the Naval Air Station, Sigonella, near the city of Catania. Our second daughter was born on the mainland, at the U.S. Naval Hospital, Naples, Italy. For several years, I also served as a Surface Force Independent Duty Corpsman (IDC,) going to sea on Navy destroyers and frigates with crews of 300 to 400 men and no on-board physician, providing all medical and dental care for the crew while the ship was at sea. I retired from the Navy in 1999, serving my last tour as the Navy senior medical dept. rep for Marine Aircraft Group 46, out of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Dieg...Expand for more