Like Abe Lincoln and Thomas Edison, I am very much self-educated. While serving as a U.S. soldier in Germany, I earned degrees in German, geography, and humanities entirely by examination. I then attended Boston University's overseas program and earned a Master of Education. My linguistics skills and geographical knowledge were recognized by the American Association of Geographers' M.F. Burrill award in 2014. In addition to the two years appointed to the research faculty of the National Intelligence University, I am also a National Certified Career Counselor and Senior Professional in Human Resources, careers which demand exception writing skills.

Both extremely logical and descriptive, German is such a fascinating language I learned it while serving as a U.S. soldier in Cold War Germany for many years. I hold the prestigious German Language Diploma of the Goethe-Institut and also graduated from the Defense Language Institute with honors for Turkish. I used both languages in my career as a toponymist!

Learning other tongues (German, Turkish) has helped me understand and teach our own English language. I am well versed in English Bible, vocabulary building, and writing skills. I wrote award-winning human geography books and articles, which you can find via Google searches.

In the U.S. Army Reserve, where I proudly served for 25 years, I was a certified instructor and taught at an NCO Academy and the Defense Mapping School. For over 20 years I have taught lessons of the 15-week Perspectives on the Christian Movement, and supervised graduate students in that course.