Fort Meade, Maryland. I don't remember much about Fort Meade. I think I was in third grade there. We lived in government housing. I remember that our particular building had a playground in back of it and playing there with toy airplanes and saying "Bombs over Tokyo!" Certainly a leftover phrase from World War II. I also remember a "neighborhood dog" that I made friends with. I would call his name as I came home from school and he was always come up running and happy. Dogs are great animals.

Grant Heights; Tokyo, Japan. When my father, who was on orders to Korea, was diverted to Japan, he changed his short tour into a long tour, which meant he could bring his family over for the three years he would be in Japan. I don't remember much about how Mom got Ellen and me across the United States, but I have one memory of the ship in San Francisco with Mom being worried about us being seasick, so she gave me a seasick pill, and I promptly fell asleep and never saw the Golden Gate Bridge as we passed underneath it. I also do not remember much about the voyage, but it must've been five or six days. But I do remember pulling into the harbor in Japan with Dad in the crowd there to meet us. He had been assigned, I believe, to a military facility at Hardy Barracks about 10 miles from Grant Heights, a large U.S. military family housing complex with churches, a commissary, theater, bowling alley, hospital, and recreational facilities. There were over 800 family housing units at one point. However, at the time our family arrived, there was insufficient housing available at Grant Heights, so Dad had rented a Japanese home that was off-base, of course. This was a typical Japanese home, with straw matting for floors and paper walls that Ellen and would occasionally and accidentally put our fingers through. We had a house boy. His name was Teddy, and he was very helpful. One of the things he did was to go outside and fire up the heater that provided the hot water for the large Japanese bath in the house. I went to school in Grand Heights, and this meant that I had to ride a bus to and from there. Dad would go in his base by car, and drop me off at the American bus stop someplace in the city of Tokyo, where I would be picked up before school and dropped off after school, at which point Dad would pick me up in his car and drive me home. Well, having a little boy standing by himself on a street corner somewhere in the city of Tokyo seems scary to me even today, apparently there is no problem doing that in Japan.
While we were living off-base, my father was having a house built in Grant Heights. Due to the housing shortage, the Army must have allocated some space and allowed those desiring to build their own home to do so. We lived in that home for a while until we moved into government quarters, and there we had another house boy, Mario. He did the cooking, cleaning, and the looking out for Ellen and me. He had his own room in the house, and he also had days off each week. My best friend at that time was Bobby Bullock. He contacted me once when I was at Purdue, but we never really linked up again.
We did have American TV in our government quarters. Just one station, as I recall. Black and white. With not with not much to watch on TV, I made regular visits to the library and when sometimes read two to three books a week.

Fort Bliss; El Paso, Texas. Captain Bill Braden's next assignment was to be the Comptroller for William Beaumont Army Hospital at Fort Bliss. We lived in Government quarters; single story ranch style houses arranged around courtyards. I do not recall what Middle School I attended, but I spent 9th grade attendiung Burges High School. In El Paso I did a lot of Boy Scout activities. I recall trips by bus into New Mexico to camp in the mountains near Las Cruces. In general, we never brought enough warm clothing due to being used to the very warm weather in El Paso. When we weren't freezing, we were trying to catch, in homemade traps, raccoons that visited us at night looking for food. I hate to admit this (as a Boy Scout) but once I got a bad allergic and itchy skin reaction because I climbed a tree that had poison ivy growing up its sides. Duhh.
Because Juárez, Mexico, was right across the border, we often visited there, and I did see a bull fight.

Lawrence Central High School, Indianapolis, Indiana. LCHS was located within walking distance of our homes and a very short drive from Fort Benjamin Harrison. It was a 9-12 high school and our family had moved to Indianapolis over the summer. I was entering 10th grade.
My first memory of the school was on day one, when I arrived at school and a teacher pointed me towards the gymnasium. When all the students were seated, there was an announcement. It said something like "Welcome to Lawrence Central High School. This orientation is for freshmen. If you're not in the ninth grade, you can step out on someone will show you where to go." So I had to get up and step out. A bit embarrassing. The teacher I had encountered upon my entrance to the school had observed my small stature and concluded that I was in the ninth grade. Ouch! A memory created that I would live with my entire life.

I cannot say that my high school years were some of the best years of my life. I haven't really asked, but I would think that Joyce might say yes to this as she was very much involved with a number of social clubs, participated in school sports, and played the flute and piccolo in the Hillsborough High School Marching Band. But I was okay. Had friends at school. Went to basketball and football games, was President of the Chess Club, wrestled JV in my Junior Year, and was on the Varsity Tennis Team my senior year. Had friends near my house and we played pick up games of baseball and football.

Two of my friends were Gerald (Jerry) Zimmerman and Max Curtis. Remember this was around 1961: no cell phones; no video games. But there were board games involving strategy and tactics. Two of the three that we played were from Avalon Hill:

• Gettysburg: While initially released in 1958 as Avalon Hill's first game, a significant revised edition was released in 1961. This 1961 edition was notable for being one of the first wargames to use a hex grid for movement, a groundbreaking innovation that became a staple in wargame design. It was a bestseller for the company for decades.
• D-Day: Released in 1961, this game simulated the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II. It was a significant title in their early war-gaming catalog. It also used a hex grid map and cardboard counters(units).

Purdue University; West Lafayette, Indiana. At Purdue University I lived in the Cary Quadrangle student housing, was a member of its rowing team (Crew) and the Purdue Reamer Club, and was a member of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC).

• Cary Club. To begin with, I do not remember anything to do with me searching out universities. I was later told that my father, seeing my with math and science, went through the process of enrolling me at Purdue with a designated major in Civil Engineering.
  I also do not remember visiting the Purdue campus prior to me starting classes.
  Similarly, with residence halls. My campus housing was at the Carey Quadrangle, a large set of buildings probably housing somewhere around 1,000 men. My room was on the second floor of the Carey East building, but I knew it as Carey A. I learned about my roommate, Jerry, when I arrived. He was a good guy, from Indianapolis, and a good student. We got along well but had different sets of friends and were studying different subjects. Our room was about 25' long by 15' wide. It had a bunk bed, two closets, two bureaus, and two desks with chairs. The bathroom was down the hall.
  The ground floor had some student rooms, but it also had the dining area and a lounge with sofas and a TV. I spent too many hours playing bridge in the lobby when I should have been up in my room studying.
  I remember one story from sitting with my friends in the lounge. It occurred just before one of the daily meals. We were there making jokes, and down, came a student somewhat in stature, and pretty quiet, whom we knew as a member of the Purdue Marching Band, we began hazing him, asking him what he did for the band. Somehow, we got his attention, and he turned around, went up to his room, got a pair of drumsticks and a rubber pad, and brought them downstairs to absolutely dazzle us with his drum-playing skills. There is a moral here about not pre-judging people based on their looks.
  Purdue had an annual event, the Purdue Grand Prix. The first Grand Prix took place on May 17, 1958. The event - racing Go Karts - was created by students who wished to exercise their engineering knowledge. The Purdue Grand Prix track is now 0.2698 miles long. It is a winding road course with 5 turns. The main event is a 160-lap race, which is equivalent to 50 miles. In 1966 there were a few of us in Carey A who decided to build a kart and compete. One of our team members had an uncle who had a gas station with garage in Lafayette, and was willing to let us use his facilities and equipment outside of his normal operating hours. That meant our crew was there late at night building the go kart. It took many nights of work, but the Kart was built, and we were ready for race day. As I recall, our Kart qualified somewhere in the middle of the pack, but our driver was pretty good and soon moved our kart up to fifth place, but around the 25th lap a weld broke on the steering system and we were out of the race. Good times, but I'm sure my grade suffered.

• The Purdue Crew. Purdue Crew is a student-run club sport of Purdue University. Founded in 1949, the team is one of the most successful club-level collegiate rowing programs in the U.S., regularly competing at national regattas such as the Dad Vail Regatta and ACRA Championships. At Purdue, the club races "eights." This is eight rowers working in unison to achieve maximum speed and efficiency. The rowers are seated on chairs with rollers, and the shell is steered by a coxswain who helps keep the timing of the strokes, and in coordination with the lead rower, called the "Stroke," sets the rowing pace. Races, called regattas, are typically held over a 2,000-meter course.
  I visited a Purdue Open House, where various clubs and activities showed off their organizations, stopped at the Crew Table, and - with my small stature - became a coxswain. There were then two coxswains, and we competed to be the varsity cox. I won the position after our races in Florida; the coach liked the way I steered the shell and helped manage the race. More on my time with the Purdue Crew can be found here.

• Reamer Club. Most universities have fraternities and sororities, collectively called "Greeks." The way these organizations recruit new members is commonly called "Rush." This is an activity where perspective fraternity and sorority members visit some number of these organizations to meet and greet. During this process Greeks decide whether or not the "Rushee" is someone they want in their organization, and the Rusher determines whether or not he or she wants to be a member of a particular Greek fraternity or sorority. Those students who elect not to Rush or perhaps go through Rush and are not selected to a sorority or a fraternity, are called Independents. I was an Independent.
  So, at the beginning of my third I semester, I found that my roommate Jerry had been "tapped out" for the Purdue Reamer Club, a service organization dedicated to promote school spirit and comprised solely of Independents. Nice.
  And at the beginning of my fourth semester I was also tapped out. But the first step was passing an interview. During the interview session, I guess I answered most of the questions satisfactory, but the one that made me pause was the one that asked, "What is the difference, as you see it, between the Purdue Reamer Club and the fraternities at Purdue University?" (At the time, Reamers was an all-men organization.)
  I could not come up with an answer, and that led to another question, at which point I had the answer to the previous one: "The Reamer Club first has the best interests of Purdue University while fraternities and sororities first have the best interests of their Greek organization." I think that got me provisionally accepted, though I had to go through the traditional hazing.
  The Purdue Reamer Club, among various service projects, also maintains the Boilermaker Special, the mascot of Purdue. Ultimately, I was assigned as Song Leader, the person who teaches Reamer Club pledges all the Reamer Songs. Probably because I was the coxswain of the Purdue Crew.
  Purdue Reamer Club members could be seen on campus wearing billed pots (often described as "black hats" or "box hats") that are adorned with numerous buttons. Once I was walking with a Reamer buddy and a student ran up behind me and grabbed my hat. We chased him clear to the door of his fraternity where we recovered my hat and made it clear to him what would happen if he EVER tried that stunt again.
  And I also remember taking Bonnie, who did not drink, to a Reamer party where she somehow got to playing a drinking game and . . .
  Speaking of Bonnie, she would come up weekends by bus to visit. She stayed in one of the girls' dorms so each evening I had to get her back to her dorm according to the published curfew hours.
  

  College summers were spent working for the Indiana State Highway Commission. There was an arrangement between the Department of Civil Engineering and the Iniana State Highway Commission that Civil Engineering students would be employed summers as Engineer Ades. I worked three summers with Engineer Jim Boyle and his crew who were involved supervising contractor work being performed on what I believe is now part of the Interstate I-465 route across the north of the City of Indianapolis. I assisted the "regular" engineers with their work, such as surveying and inspecting contractor work.

  Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) I had gone to Purdue for my undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering. At the time, with the US being more and more engaged in Vietnam, and with Purdue being a land grant college, ROTC was mandatory for all male students for the first two years of the program. So the Army ROTC Brigade was huge, and the formations/drills on the Armory floor were likewise packed with students. The program consisted of classes two or three times and one drill each week. The class subjects were on military history and leadership; the Armory time focussed on drill and ceremonies - marching. At the time it wasn't "cool" to be "into" ROTC and I reacted immaturely. I didn't pay attention to my Military Science Studies and to attending all the class lectures. As a "reward" I ended up working off demerits at the end of each semester.
  More on my ROTC experiences here.

  Ultimately I earned a BSCE and MSCE (soils engineering) from Purdue and an Ed.D from Florida State University.

In 1965, Jay met Bonnie Eileen Dunn. Jay's sister introduced them to each other. Bonnie's father was the Post Engineer at Fort Benjamin Harrison. They dated, and they fell in love. They were married in January 1967 in a simple ceremony at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis. Shortly thereafter Jay was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the US Army Corps of Engineers. Below is a brief listing of his assignments, but a more complete listing and his memories of those assignments here.

Fort Belvoir, Virginia. In June of 1967 Jay reported to the Engineer School at Fort Belvoir, VA, to attend the 9-week Engineer Officer Basic Course. Jay and Bonnie lived in a simple apartment not far from the base, and Bonnie made friends with other wives whose husbands were in the school. Jay did well, and graduated third in his class of about 120 other officers.

Fort Lewis, Washington. Their first assignment was at Fort Lewis, Washington, where Jay was an engineer platoon leader, and then a Battalion staff officer. They drove out to Fort Lewis in a brand new 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle that Jay's parents gave them as a wedding present. They lived in government quarters there where much of the furnishings was goverment loaned. During their stay at Fort Lewis, they had a number of other friends who were all lieutenants in the Battalion.

Vietnam. After about eight months at Fort Lewis, Jay came down on orders for Vietnam, and Bonnie and Jay traveled back across the country to Virginia, where Bonnie would be staying with her parents and attending classes at Old Dominion University. Jay served as a platoon leader in an engibneer construction battalion for his entire 12 months in Vietnam, and workeed on two makjor projects.

• First was the III Corps Tactical Operations Center in Long Bihn, a high visibility project (the previous battalion had been thrown off the project) involving mixing, placing, and finishing over 2,000 cubic yards of concrete to protect the III Corps staff from rocket attacks, and
• The second being the construction of a base camp along a section of unsecure but important roadway, QL20, and the clearing of jungle and the road paving to enable critical supplies to be transported securely from the Central Highlands around Da Lat to the capital city of Saigon. During this time Jay was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with V-for-Valor device for his response to the NVA who attacked his roadbuilding platoon.

In the time period of 2012 to 2018 Jay wrote two fictional novels based on most of his Army experiences and almost all of his Vietnam experiences. It was a good exercise.

Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. Jay returned to the United States and he and Bonnie attended Purdue University for two years. Shortly after they were at Purdue, they were playing golf and someone yelled "FORE!" Jay dove to the ground. He got up, brushed himself off, and in a mix of emotions, decided to quit smoking (which he had done for five years). The rational was that it was not smart for him to kill himself. Bonnie and Jay lived in married student housing - very modest accommodations - but with Jay now a captain, they were relatively wealthy as compared to their fellow students. During that time Bonnie earned her Bachelor of Science in Education, and Jay earned his Master's of Science in Civil Engineering and was admitted to the Chi Epsilon Civil Engineering honorary. They also had their first child, Karen. They actually lived in two sets of married student housing, first in a one bedroom studio and second in a two bedroom when Karen arrived.

Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Jay's next assignment was to the US Army Engineer School at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, where he was an instructor and taught concrete construction to classes for sergeants, lieutenants, captains, and field grade officers. Initially, Jay and Bonnie purchased a house in the Dale City, just south of the base; but when their name came up for on-base quarters, they rented out their property and moved onto Fort Belvoir. Jay and Bonnie spent a lot of time the with their friends Guy and Lenny Donaldson whom they had first met at Purdue. Bonnie and Lenny "hung out" during the day and weekends Guy and Jay would play golf together. Many times the Bradens and the Donaldsons just all socialized together. During this time Jay studied for and successfully passed the eight hour exam that enabled him to earn the designation of Professional Engineer. Fort Belvoir was also the location where Jay and Bonnie had their second daughter, Sandra.

Kaiserslautern, Germany. After about 20 months at Fort Belvoir, Jay asked his Army assignment officer about the possibility of going to Germany. So after two years of teaching, Jay's orders for Europe took him to an engineer construction support company in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Their quarters were in Vogelweh Family Housing, in a third floor apartment with washers and dryers in the basement. There they had many friends, but probably most significant was the relationship they had among all the officers and NCOs in the company. They were all very close, and did many things, such as attending fests, as a group. There Jay and Bonnie met David and Pam Duke, a wonderful couple. During this time the company was selected as the LTG Emerson C. Itschner award winner (The Itschner Award) as the best active duty engineer company in the US Army. Bonnie and Jay traveled to Washington, DC, to the annual Engineer Ball, to receive the award. Jay kept contact with his First Sergeant for many years until Al Williams died. He still stays in contact with Art Larson, Richard and Ginger Hunley, and Pam and David Duke.

Heidelberg, Germany. After two years, the company in Kaiserslautern was inactivated, and Jay and Bonnie moved to Heidelberg where Jay served with the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff Engineer. Heidelberg is a beautiful city, and Jay and Bonnie, along with daughters Karen and Sandra, lived in government quarters (on the third floor of course) in Mark Twain Village, right next to where Jay worked in USAREUR Headquarters at Campbell Barracks. Because it was a staff job, Jay's hours were fixed: 7:30 in the morning until 4:30 in the evening. That left a lot of family time, and the Bradens took advantage of this by visiting many locations throughout Germany, France, and Holland. Jay's parents often visited and accompanied them on these travels. Same for Bonnie's Mom. Jay's work responsibilities included the modernization program of US facilities throughout the US VII Corps. During this time Jay was promoted early to the rank of major, and the promotion party was held aboard a river cruise boat on the Heidelberg River.

Frankfurt, Germany. After just one year at this position, Jay was contacted and asked if he would like to extend his tour in Europe to serve as the Operations Officer of a combat engineer Battalion in Eschborn, just outside Frankfurt. The answer was "yes" and the Bradens moved to their third set of third story quarters. Bonnie became active in the community and opened up a nursery school. Bonnie was also president of the PTA of the local elementary school. Jay worked hard at his S3 duties, and the Bradens had many good fellowship times with Fred and Rosemarie Butler and Larry and Rosemary Bonine. After about nine months in his S3 duties, Jay was notified by the Department of the Army that he had been selected to attend Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. However, Jay was able to secure a one year deferment so he was able to serve about 20 months as a Battalion Operations Officer, and this was a good assignment.

Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. CGSC was almost a one-year vacation. (It is "billed" as the best year of your life.) The base treated CGSC students wonderfully and there were many family activities and social events to enjoy. There were over 900 students in the class, and the class was divided into sections of 60 students each. Jay was in a very good section that had an outstanding student class leader, an older armor officer who kept his students in line and ensured they maintained a good relationship with the instructors. As a result the word got around that our section was fun to teach so that motivated the instructors even more and the class benefited from it. Based on the ongoing Cold War, many of the tactical scenarios were run using maps of Germany, and it turned out that most of the scenarios involved terrain that Jay had traveled upon during his two years as an Operations Officer, so it was easy for him to relate to the tactical problems. During this time, Jay and a friend, Paul Baerman, collaborated on a number of training articles that were published in Military Review, an Army-wide monthly publication coming from Fort Leavenworth. The class did have a Marshall Award winner, as the best student overall. Jay, like about 98 percent of the other students, decided that trying to become the Marshall Award winner was not worth the effort, but Jay did earn all A's in his studies, making him one of the 22 Honor Graduates in the class.

Fort Monroe, Virginia. Jay's next assignment took him to Headquarters, Training and Doctrine Command, at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, where he served on the staff of the TRADOC Inspector General. Jay was one of the two training inspectors on the team, the other being JJ Mills. Jay and JJ got along very well. The Bradens lived in Wherry Housing, generally old and substandard quarters on base such that the Army did not even collect all of Jay's Quarters Allowance. Jay and Bonnie said they lived in ten cent quarters that had a million-dollar view of Hampton Bay. But, as always, they made friends with their neighbors and had fun with social events involving the IG staff. Early on, Jay and Bonnie had their third child, Anne. Karen and Sandra attended a nearby, but off-base, Catholic school that provided a good education. During this time Jay received his second early promotion, and he and two friends had their Promotion Party on a boat that cruised the Hampton Roads and Norfolk Bay waters. Jay was also selected to the Battalion Command list, and after two years at Fort Belvoir, the Bradens headed to Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Fort Campbell, Kentucky. At Fort Campbell, Jay and Bonnie had a nice set of quarters and were involved socially with battalion and post activities. There their fourth child Robert was born. It was difficult being in a non-divisional battalion at the home of the 101st Airborne Division, but Jay worked hard to make the battalion a credible combat engineer respected by divisional units. Jay was selected to attend the Army War College and managed to get that postponed one year, so he had a three years as a battalion commander. He was also selected for his third below-the-zone (advanced) promotion. Bonnie and the kids thrived at Fort Campbell. There were lots of activities such as horseback riding at the base strables, recreational sports for the kids, battalion and post social gatherings, and battalion changes of command that were something like a monthly event because of the nearly 30 battalions on the post. Jay also spent time coaching youth soccer, and he and Bonnie played on an adult coed soccer league that competed in nearby Clarksville.

Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. Jay attended the Army War College here. The family had good quarters and was close enough to the commissary that Bonnie would walk there with a wagon to carry the groceries home. There was a creek that ran through the housing area that the kids had fun floating boats in, and the recreational sports for kids at the barracks were set up very well. USAWC classes were broken down into "seminars" of about 13-15 students. The seminars were balanced as best as possible so that each seminar had an engineer, a couple of logisticians, an aviator, some infantry and armor officers, one or two artillerymen, etc. The seminars had a lot of social activities and the students and their spouses became very close. Each year the various senior service schools would get toghether for a day of friendly athletic competition, and one of the evnts was volleyball. Jay had come to love that event and joined the volleyball team that was coached by one of the USAWC faculty members, a marine colonel who was - let's say - pretty intense. The story turned our well, with the USAWC Volleyball Team winning its event, going undefeated in the tournament.

Stuttgart, Germany. Following his schooling at the Army War College, Jay was assigned to Europe, and assumed the position of Deputy Brigade Commander of the 7th Engineer Brigade. The brigade headquarters was located in a suburb of Stuttgart called Kornwestheim. It had battalions in Aschaffenburg, Bamberg, Heilbronn, and Ettlingen, and Kornwestheim. Jim Velezis, the Brigade Commander, had his hands full with brigade and community duties so Jay watched over maintenance operations in the brigade and also spent a lot of time visiting the battalions. He got to know most of the company commanders very well, and was often invited out by them to look over aspects of their company operations. He was certainly a "frequent flyer" for the corps general aviation company that supported the brigade. Unfortunately, the quarters situation in the area was terrible, and Jay and Bonnie found themselves again in a third-floor apartment. They did make some German friends and had good times going with them for social activities such as bowling. During this time Jay had his promotion party to Colonel, and withheld on the PartieWagon, a special streetcar that traveled the streets of Stuttgart. Jay and Bonnie carried food and beverages aboard and danced as the streetcar made its way through the town. It was especially fun to see the looks we got from passengers going to and from work and shopping in regular streetcars. Jay was also assigned a special duty. He was asked to investigate a facilities engineer who supported a local community that housed the forward deployed brigade of an infantry of an infantry division. During his investigation he learned that the problem was not the facilities engineer, but the Commander, a one star general. Needless to say, this was a very sticky situation. But he completed his report and turned it in to the Corps Headquarters. Shortly thereafter, Jay moved on to his next assignment and learned that apparently nothing came of his work. At a later date he learned from the Lieutenant General who was the Corps Commander at the time that he agreed with the report but somehow got caught up in other pressing activities, and never took action against the one-star, to his regret.

Hanau, Germany. During his time with the 7th Engineer Brigade, Jay learned that he had been selected for Brigade Command. He would command the 130th Engineer Brigade that was based in Hanau and had battalions in Darmstadt, Frankfurt, and Wildflecken. Concurrently, he would be the Corps Engineer for the US V Corps, and a Sub-Community Commander whose responmsibilities included government quarters housing about 2,000 military and their dependents. and a number of suppoert facilities including the PX and the Commissary, as well as one of the elementary schools serving military dependents. As with his previous assignment, he was again a "frequent flyer" for the corps general aviation company that supported the brigade. Finally the family would have a nice set of quarters, and they were located within bicycling distance of Jay's headquarters building. The children had nice schools, and Karen played soccer on the high school team. When she graduated, she attended the University of Maryland campus in Munich. The brigade had lots of social events that were fun and also many events that evolved its German partnership unit, Pioneer Kommado III of the Third German Corps. This brigade size unit was commanded by Oberst Hans Georg Seitz, a very capable soldier. Jay and Bonnie had many good times with Hans Georg and his wife Hildegard. While in Hanau, Bonnie's mom Claire often visited and also Jay's parents, Bill and Elaine. The family had many interesting travels throughout Germany and up into Holland.

Tampa, Florida. As Jay's time with the 130th Engineer Brigade was coming to an end, he was contacted by the Colonels Assignment Division at the Army's Military Personnel Center to discuss his next assignment. At that time he was willing to extend his time in Europe and, as a result, he was offered a position with the NATO Headquarters in Belgium. Unfortunately, after doing a bit of research, it turned out that it was not really a family assignment, so Jay asked MILPERCEN to look for stateside duties for him. He was offered the US Central Command Engineer position. When Jay and Bonnie discussed the offer, Bonnie asked where was Central Command, and Jay answered that it was in Tampa, Florida. Well, that was it. Bonnie loved the idea of an assignment in Florida, even though neither Jay nor Bonnie had any idea what was USCENTCOM. Jay said fine to CENTCOM but learned from MILPERCEN that he would be needed early, early to the extent that he would leave his brigade command before two years. So the answer to that proposal was an emphatic no. But soon MILPERCEN came back and asked if he would still be willing to go to CENTCOM, but with the understanding that he would initially perform some other duties until the CENTCOM Engineer position came open. Jay said yes, without even asking what these other duties might be. So eventually the family found itself flying into Tampa, Florida. (One of our first stops was to get a real American hamburger.) And the family had some difficulties to begin with. Jay had not gotten the van to the port in Bremerhaven early enough so that it was waiting in Charleston when we arrived, so we were without transportation initially, and were in the rental car business. Further, we stayed in the Air Force Guest Quarters at MacDill Air Force Base but decided that, because of the better schools available, we wanted to be out to the East in the Brandon-Valrico area. So for many weeks, we found ourselves shuttling the kids out and back to school every day and meanwhile working with various real estate agents to try to find a place to live. Not fun. Eventually we found a home on a golf course in an area called the Buckhorn Estates. The house was still under construction, though at about the 95 percent completion rate. Therefore the bad news was that it was not move-in ready, but the good news is that we had some abilities to influence the final construction. In that latter regard, we made two good changes. We relocated a closet in what would be Karen’s bedroom that gave her a door out onto the rear lanai. And we took about three feet out of the living room area to add a wall of closets on one side of our family room. But it was not until early January that we could move in, completing a long, hard, six-week stay in temporary quarters with lots of commuting. The next step, since we were in Florida and lived on a golf course, was to have our swimming pool built. We wanted to have that done by the contractor who was building our house, but that would have delayed our move-in so we made the purchase without pool and soon went looking for a pool contractor, and we found one. We made a good decision, the siding that the pool would go from shallow to deep to shallow, and that let us put a volleyball net across the deep section and we had many fun volleyball games in that pool. We also learned a little bit about pool depth. The contractor asked us how deep we wanted our pool. While we were thinking of an answer, he told us that most people spend most of their time in the pool in water that is not deeper than chest high, and that if we had a part of the pool that was very deep then that would make most other parts of the pool deeper than chest high. We went with his advice and the deepest part of our pool was six feet, and that worked well. It turned out that I was assigned for nine months to US Special Operations Command Central, US SOCCENT. Needless to say, this was a very different kind of assignment, but it turned out to be a very good one. The bad news, was that my commute each day was 50 to 55 minutes, but the good news was that our Valrico community was excellent and Bonnie plugged herself into many activities and the kids adapted well to yet another move. Karen transferred to Florida State University in Tallahassee and we tried to visit her often. Sandra was active in school and we enjoyed watching her play soccer for her Bloomingdale High School team. Bonnie and Anne were active in Odyssey of the Mind, a school sponsored program, and their team did very well in local and state competition. I helped coach and coached Robert in Little League baseball, and Anne also played on a recreation league girls’ softball team. Robert was in Cub Scouts. Our family found a church: St. Andrews United Methodist Church, and we were active there. The family made some close friends from church, the Penneys, and the families even took a great vacation together to the Cherokee, North Carolina area.

Tampa, Florida. Moving from SOCCENT to CENTCOM was easy, and reduced Jay's travel time to work by 10 minutes because CENTCOM was near the entrance to the base while SOCCENT was at the other end of the airfield in a building called the Mole Hole. CENTCOM was good in that it was one of those type staff assignments where everyone went home at 5 p.m. And, of course, one could not take one's work home because it was classified. Time at CENTCOM included being deployed for Desert Shield and Desert Storm. It was hard on the kids, especially Anne, to think that her dad could be in harm's way, but Jay did get some weekly calls home courtesy of the Saudi Government so that helped. It was during this time the Bonnie took on two major activities. She noted that are relatively new community in Buckhorn did not have a nearby County Park, but she learned that every new property sold by a contractor included impact fees that went to Hillsborough County for parks. However, she learned that there was nothing specific about where a park might be located. So one could be paying for a county park that was nowhere near your home. As a result, she identified a piece of property adjacent to our community and worked diligently with the Hillsborough County Parks and the Recreation Department and with Buckhorn residents to get this area approved as a County Park. To do this, she interacted with a number of County officials and also walked their 625-home community with Robert in a backpack and holding Anne by the hand to collect community signatures supporting the action. The park exists today, and it is a nice one. Bonnie also learned that the January 1991 Super Bowl that was to be held at Raymond James Stadium in downtown Tampa would include military families as part of its tribute to service people deployed for Desert Shield. So Bonnie spent many, many days driving Robert and Anne back and forth to Tampa, returning sometimes late at night.

Fort Eustis, Virginia. Jay's assignment to the Army Training Support Center at Fort Eustis, Virginia, was one of the better "family" assignments, though we missed Sandra who was at USF in Tampa. For part of our time there Karen was with us, employed doing social work nearby, but she left to live with Sandra while she attended USF to earn a Masters in Administration. Just to the north of Fort Eustis was Colonial Williamsburg, a wonderful historical tourist attraction, and we spent many times there visiting. And just outside of Williamsburg was Busch Gardens where we soon had annual passes. There were many times we got in the car and drove to Busch Gardens, just to visit the theme park, watch the people, eat an ice cream cone, and return home. Further to the north were Jay’s parents, and they visited up there on a regular basis. To the south was Virginia Beach and Norfolk with its many attractions related to the naval base and the port area. It was also a fun place to visit. Further south, about a three hour drive, was the home of Paul and Dorothy Dunn, Bonnie's brother and his wife. We enjoyed going down to the Buxton-Cape Hatteras area to visit with them and to go out with Paul fishing, and to enjoy the wonderful beaches there, and to - of course - eat some good seafood, usually caught by Paul. To the east was Yorktown and the Yorktown battlefield, that we visited often. Our quarters on base were good, but not good. They were very old, and that was not good. But they were certainly large enough for us and included a garage and were on about two acres, large enough that we were issued a riding lawn mower. We had fun in that extra large back yard, where we set up a volleyball net. We had a screened-in front porch that was ideal for scaring kids on Halloween with Jay's gorilla outfit while Bonnie roamed the front yard in her witches outfit, also scaring the kids. There were three houses in our cul-de-sac; we were in the middle. On one side were Jack and Judy Riley and their two children. Jack was the Chief of Staff of the base. On the other side was the Assistant Commandant of the Transportation School. We got along well with each other, and that was nice. At Ft. Eustis Jay and Bonnie's quarters were about two minute walk from Jay's work, though Jay drove each day "because he may need the car to do work related errands." And that excuse did not really work because Jay had a staff car and a driver. This was a time when Jay spent a lot of time with sports, especially with Robert. He coached or help coach Robert’s Little League teams and coached his soccer teams. Bonnie helped with each of these. Jay and Bonnie were also very active with the youth programs, and ran the sports activities for the weekly youth activities sponsored by the church. The kids came in and played games and other activities that Jay and Bonnie ran, and did so for about an hour, and then they went in for Bible study type activities. Jay and Bonnie enjoyed doing this very much. Jay was awarded the military's Outstanding Volunteer Service award for these type activities and Bonnie was awarded the Outstanding Civilian Service award for the wonderful things she did. This was also a time when Anne was old enough to get her driver’s license. Jay looked around and ended up buying her a 1969 VW “bug” for about $800. We called the car PIGLETT and had a license plate with that name on it. Anne not only had to learn how to drive, but had to learn how to drive on a “stick.” And, unfortunately, the car had problems. At one point a mechanic told Jay that perhaps he had just purchased a car with a bad engine and this was just to be a lesson learned. But somehow the engine kept working and the car kept running. When the family moved from Fort Eustis to Tallahassee, Jay had the privilege of driving PIGLETT, without AC, the entire distance in the summer heat.

Because Jay entered the Army in June 1967, his 30 year mandatory retirement date would have been June 1997. But that would have meant one of two things. Either the family would remain in the area and Anne would graduate from Menchville High School, or Jay would find a job in some other area, and Anne would arrive in a new school only for her senior year. So Jay elected retire in August 1996 with 29 years and two months of service, giving Anne the opportunity to spend both her junior and senior years at the same high school.

Finding a job: Military retirees often seek federal employment, many in the same areas as their military expertise and in jobs often affiliated with the military assignment they are retiring from. So if you are the Army’s expert in toilet sets you might easily secure employment with ACME Toilet Seat Contractors. Well, that was not something Jay wanted to do … so with all his operations and management experience he approached Busch Gardens - right up the road near Williamsburg. Three letters with résumés and ideas he thought might improve the efficiency and profitability of their operations. Zero responses. Jay went into the business of sending out résumés, and even hired a company to help them with this endeavor. Out went about 300 cover letters with résumés, back came about 150 “Thanks but no thanks” letters. Nothing was working. Jay tried a new strategy, and pulled together all his awards and letters of recommendation that he really had not paid a lot of attention to, and put them together into essentially a bound book. The first use of this “book” was to apply for the position of Commandant of Cadets for a military academy in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Jay and Bonnie traveled to the interview and Jay felt like he presented himself well, and did a good job answering questions; but it seemed that they were just going through the motions. This turned out to be correct as he later learned that they hired a retired two-star general. Can't blame them, a major general beats a colonel every time.

And then Jay saw a search for The Director of Professional Development Programs at Florida State University’s Center for Professional Development (CPD). Seemed interesting, but what the job entailed it wasn’t clear. He called his potential boss, to ask for a job description and got a very bureaucratic answer. Something like, “At these higher levels of academic manage the duties and responsibilities are so broad that it is really not possible to construct such a document.” Jay delivered his thanks while wondering how the poor Army had managed to develop a pretty specific job description for when he commanded a 3,000 man forward deployed combat engineer brigade in Europe. Oh, well.

Now what? So Jay drafted his own job description, thinking that the Director of Professional Education was the person who helped the university professors with their professional studies. Wrong, he did not learn till later that this was a position in the university’s continuing education department that delivered non-credit certification programs and similar professional education programs to the community. But the large bound job application package worked, and he was offered a job interview. So Jay and Bonnie flew to Tallahassee and there Jay learned that the workforce already at CPD all had concerns about Jay being a retired Army Colonel and doing nothing but sitting back and issuing orders. At the interview, Jay assured him that he was a hands-on type person, and that just before departing for Florida he was in the process of cutting and pasting some documents that needed to go out to his command. He asked them to call his secretaries to verify this - and they did! Well, Jay got hired.

Soon after Jay learned that he had been employed by Florida State University, he and Bonnie made a trip to Tallahassee for house hunting. They found a good realtor who showed them around for a couple of days, and they found a very nice home in a community north of and about 20 to 25 minutes travel time to FSU. The community was called Ox Bottom Manor. And so Jay was on his way to becoming an FSU staff member.

Tallahassee, Florida. The move from Fort Eustis to Tallahassee was reasonably smooth. The Braden caravan, Piglett and all, made it uneventfully, if a bit slowly. The movers arrived the next day and Bonnie began settling into her new home, something she was very used to.

Interestingly, after about five days on the job Jay looked up from his office to find one of the CPD employees standing outside, looking at him. Jay asked something like, "What's up?" He learned that he was not performing at all according to expectations (see above), that he was - in fact - a hands-on person who was willing to get down in the trenches to learn the business and help his subordinates - just as he had said.

In Tallahassee Robert and Anne would go to the very well regarded the Leon High School. Robert played soccer there for his freshman year and played varsity tennis for his junior and senior years. He was active in the Leon High School Band for most of his freshman year, and he played in recreational leagues for soccer and baseball. Jay helped coach most of Robert's Rec League soccer teams, and many of Robert's friends were on these teams. We had fun practices and enjoyed our games very much. Anne played varsity softball for Leon and High School and did well. In November of 1996 Sandra married Steve Roberts and their home was in Brandon. The wedding was a very nice affair and they began house hunting, ultimately finding a good buy in a small community near the intersection of Lumsden Road and St Cloud Avenue in Valrico.

One of the things that Bonnie and I looked for as we moved into Tallahassee (August 1996) was a church home. Located nearby was Wildwood Presbyterian Church (now simply called Wildwood Church, though it remains Presbyterian).
What made it attractive was that it had good youth programs. And the fact that it was Presbyterian did not mean much to Bonnie or me because, in general, our religious affiliation was "Army Protestant."
So Robert and Anne, the children at home with us at this time in Tallahassee, got involved with Wildwood youth activities and Jay and Bonnie got involved with Wildwood adult activities.
One of the activities that Bonnie really liked and spent a lot of time with was the Grounds Committee; volunteers who ensured that the outward appearance of the church looked very good: mowed grass, trimmed bushes, nice flower beds, painted buildings . . . After a few years with the Grounds Committee, there came an opening for one of the committee’s officers. And Bonnie was approached to see if she would like to fill that vacancy. Then she learned that there was one qualification required: to be a member of the church. Believe it or not, this came as a surprise to Jay and Bonnie; they had been attending the church for more than three years and participating in all kinds of church activities. Weren’t they members? No, to be a member of Wildwood Presbyterian Church, one had to attend a membership training, which was about four hours worth of instruction on the church’s background, rules, values, and its doctrinal approach to the Bible.
So Bonnie and Jay found themselves one Saturday at the church for its Membership Training. The training was good; they learned some things about the church and its doctrine. But there was one more activity. Everyone in the membership process went through it, and it was when you went into a room where the only other person was Pastor Darwin Box, the Executive Pastor at Wildwood. There were some opening questions such as how did you like the training and then Darwin asked this question: “When did you come to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?“. I sat there with my mouth open (and later learned that Bonnie had done the same). We each participated in church activities as youths, and in our marriage we had been faithful church attenders wherever we lived. Moreover, as a battalion commander and as a brigade commander, Jay had Army chaplains who worked for him, and he used them effectively. But Army Protestant churches did not have altar calls (at least the ones that Jay and Bonnie attended), and the chaplains had never put the question to Jay or Bonnie asking if they were ready to confess their sins and ask God to forgive them, and to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
That night they discussed what had happened, and decided that they did want to make a public Profession of Faith.
That occurred privately that night, and publicly shortly after their relocation to the Tampa area, at First Baptist Church of Brandon, where they and their children were also baptized by immersion. After around three years at First Baptist Brandon, Jay was invited to be a Deacon, and he served in that position for around four years.

Jay and Bonnie enjoyed the university atmosphere. The whole family had season tickets for the football games. Anne lived in a dorm on campus and later became a member and ultimately the vice president of the Phi Mu sorority, and did very well with her responsibilities there. She enjoyed being with her sorority sisters. The Braden family enjoyed Tallahassee. Jay and Bonnie had a pool and a pool screen added onto their home. They purchased a jet ski and used it on a nearby lake. Tallahassee was also a reasonably two hour drive to Panama City Beach, a three and a half hour drive to visit Robert when he began attending Georgia Tech, and not that far from a six mile skate path along an abandoned railroad trail that led to the small village of St Marks on the St Marks River that ultimately fed Apalachee Bay, a small part of the Gulf of Mexico, At St Marks we would buy lunch or some snacks and then head back. A nice benefit of working for FSU was that Jay, as a staff member, got to use university facilities and he played racquetball at their very nice student Rec Center with its excellent courts on a regular basis. Even better was a community Rec Center not far from there Meadow Ridge home it also had a racquetball court that Jay used occasionally.

The Dean of Continuing Education was Robert Simerly, a great man and an author of many books on continuing education. Dr. Simerly met often with his staff to help them understand the continuing education process and how they might better perform in their various capacities. CPD provide program Administrators (course assistants) for both graduate course that students take towards earning a graduate degree and non=credit continuing education programs that persons take to earn professional certifications (as with Microsoft) or simply for professional development, as in an Effective Writing course. Each of those programs had its special challenges.

• Graduate programs (for-credit courses) in business are administered by staff members at the College of Business. But Colleges of Business often have an Executive Management program that is noncredit, but targeted towards people already in business who want the university’s Executive Management credential (normally earned in 12-15 months) and not necessarily a graduate degree which normally takes years to complete. Administering an Executive Management program requires recruiting qualified students, setting up classes to sometimes include class snacks and class outings, providing administrative assistance to the faculty (a pretty large task in itself), setting up faculty pay for this extra teaching effort, helping get student questions answered, and being the “Go To” person for about anything that needs to get done for the class short of teaching it. An Executive Management program is a College of Business profit center.
• Continuing education programs are one of a university's profit centers. Persons developing and delivering these programs are expected to generate sufficient income to cover their salaries, to cover all program expenses (teacher salaries, books and supplies, advertising, snacks if offered), and to provide about 35% of their net profits back to the university. Most programs involve finding a curriculum or generating one; something that a Program Administrator for university graduate programs doesn’t worry about: the graduate curriculum is provided by the university and the texts are specified by the instructors. Continuing education staff members also perform all the “other” tasks that Program Administrators do for graduate programs plus they do their own bookkeeping and their own recruiting of teachers as well as students.

Jay then could be full time at grandfathering, traveling with Bonnie, continuing with racquetball, and joining a local men's golf association, where he was elected to the Board to serve as the Secretary. He also continued to be the Webmaster for his community association and - in 2010 - began writing the first of his fictional novels based on his Vietnam experiences. Later, he completed the sequel to his first novel in 2016. Jay and Bonnie’s dream of retirement was shattered when, in January 2014, Bonnie was diagnosed with inoperable Stage IV brain cancer, that led to her death in June of that year. Those four months were just terrible, and Jay will never forget a night in perhaps April of that year when Bonnie said, "I thought we would grow old together."

The next 2 1/2 years were characterized by Jay trying to deal with Bonnie's death. Bonnie loved the color purple so Jay got rid of almost all his shirts that were not that color and bought a closet full of various shades and style purple shirts that he wore every day. He contemplated what the rest of his life would be like without his beloved Bonnie. He did spend some time writing the sequel to his first novel.

But Jay began seeing Joyce Pollicina whom he knew casually from a number of years before. Sandra told Jay that it wasn't really right to be wearing purple shirts while seeing Joyce; she had a point and the purple shirts went away. And though Jay could not believe he would ever be involved in a relationship with any other woman on earth, Jay and Joyce fell in love and were married in April of 2018.

They moved into a very nice rental property in Brandon in July of that year, each selling their respective homes in the area, and moved again in July of 2019 into a home they bought in Valrico. Their new home was in a small, 29-home community called Legends Pass.

When Jay and Joyce got married, for around a year their Sunday church activities consisted of attending the Eddie Mercer Life Ggroup at Bell Shoals and then driving 16 miles up the road to Fellowship Baptist Church in Thonotosassa, where Joyce was a life member, to attend the morning's sermon. But it became very apparent that this was a an unworkable situation and - with the encouragement of a number of Bell Shoals people Washington - Jay moved his membership to Fellowship Baptist Church (FBC) where Jay and Joyce joined the Robert Anders Life Group. Unfortunately, Robert died of lung cancer in XXXX, at that point, Jay and Joyce joined the Pastor David Spencer Life Group. Jay eventually became Pastor David's assistant in the Life Group; essentially performing all the responsibilities he had previously as a Bell Shoals Life Group Director.

In late 2019 Jay's life changed when both of his younger daughters became estranged. He was not able to understand what really drove this. He tried counseling with Sandra, without success.

The years 2018-2020 were characterized by many cruises and trips where Jay and Joyce had lots of fun. COVID changed things. Jay's racquetbal came to a stop when the local courts were closed, but one of his racquetball friends, Frank Cutri, outlined a Pickleball court on his driveway. And that new sport replaced racquetball. It was also around 2020 wen Jay changed his membership to Fellowship Baptist Church in Thonotosassa a very small church compared to Bell Shoals.