I'm just starting in blacksmithing, taking basic classes at Chicago Ave Fire Arts Center in Minneapolis, a tool making class at North House Folk School in Grand Marais, MN, and I've done a number of art welding and metal fabrication classes through the community ed program at the local tech college.
I enlisted in the WI Army National Guard on Friday, April 13, 2001. I was a 92Y (unit supply/armorer) in a Combat Engineer Battalion (wheeled). My last name is Riederer (Reed-er-er). I went through Basic Training as "Private Reindeer" - hence the user name. I'm thinking about using it as the business name if I can start to sell products.
I was halfway through spring semester of my Junior year in college when I got a phone call during mid-terms week, telling me to report for active duty in 10 days. I lined up outside the registrars office at 7:45 the next morning along with dozens of other reservists, and dropped 18 credits of classes I was acing. My unit mobilized through Ft. McCoy, WI in March 2003. We hit Camp Virginia, Kuwait in May. On my 21st birthday in early June I rode into Iraq behind a machinegun. At the end of the road, right before we turned onto Tallil AB, these Arab guys were yelling "Mister, Mister... Whiskey... Ice... Beer!!!" But we couldn't stop!!!! That isthe kind of stuff that gives a guy from Wisconsin PTSD... screw the mortars and the IEDs.
I got out of the Guard in 2007, I did two years with an Army Reserve unit rather than get yanked back from the IRR for another deployment. Got out in 2009 as a newlywed, rather than go to Afghanistan.
Now I'm divorced and working for the Army Corps of Engineers as a civilian. I'm learning to pound metal to stay sane and release some creative energy.
