Daniel Baker

Attended grade school at Lincoln Elementary school in Corvallis, Oregon from kindergarten to the 5th grade. Lived in Corvallis until my parents finalized their divorce and us kids went with mom to live in Alaska. Made a few friends among the Native Alaskan Eskimos and Indians where I discovered the roots to my diversity and understanding of other cultures, lifestyles, and religions. There is where I learned to fish, hunt, and trap - including icefishing. I learned a lot about the animals of the Alaskan wilderness. Continued high school in Sweet home, Oregon after I moved back to the United States with the grandparents. Played few sports in high school and, in 1985, upon graduating from high school, I joined the Fort Simcoe Job Corp located in White Swan, Washington where I learned the mastery of the trades Carpentry and Truckdriving. During my aprenticeship training period with the Job Corp, I also joined up with the United States Military Reserves. After completing my aprenticeship work with the Job Corp, I continued my career with the US Military to include a few stints overseas as an active duty soldier. My first taste of active duty life began in 1999, when I was activated for Operation Southern Watch, in which case, we were assigned as Patriot Missle site security to help control the no fly zone established after the first Golf War. My second overseas assignment, after this, took me to the Red Sea of Egypt, located near the city of Sharm El Shiekh (great place for snorkeling and scuba diving). This duty, for all intents and purposes, was strickly a peace keeping mission - to ensure the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt were not violated - this was the first of my world visions - seeing how other people of the world live. My final mission, final tour of duty with the military was with OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom). I completed my 1 year tour overseas and afterward, after I received my 20 year letter, I retired from the reserves. All of this knowledge of seei