Happy 100!

This is my 100th post on this blog. How cool is that? To celebrate, I've constructed a list of 100 things about myself. I know from reading other blogs (like my wife's) that I'm supposed to have a neat little button and a link, but I don't know how to do that. If you can help me out with that, please do so. Then, I'll update and create aforementioned link and button and continue on. Until then, grab some water or go to the bathroom 'cuz this is a bit of a read, but here are 100 things about me.

100 things about me

1. I was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio.
2. I am named after my father, William E, Sr. That makes me “Jr.”
3. I sang in the Cincinnati Boy’s Choir for three years, 4th through 6th grades.
4. I went to Frankfurt, Germany; Munich, and Vienna, Austria when I was 12 as a member of the CBC for an international music festival.
5. I played baseball for 6 years while I attended elementary school.
6. I was a catcher most of the time, but played some outfield and 2nd base.
7. I’ve played a musical instrument since I was in the 4th grade.
8. I started out learning trumpet because that’s what my dad plays.
9. My dad was my band director in junior high and shifted me to French horn.
10. My dad brought a tuba into the house the summer before I started high school so I switched again just before band camp.
11. I took lessons for four years from a tuba professor who’d studied under the legendary Bill Bell.
12. I was offered a scholarship to Carson-Newman College, a small Christian college in Tennessee, by the head of the music department after he and I played together at Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center in Ashville, NC in 1990.
13. I went to Ridgecrest every year since I was a baby for music week as family vacation. It wasn’t until later that I realized that the trip was a business trip for my dad, the minister of music.
14. I played football in junior high, but gave it up for the band in high school.
15. My favorite football player was Reggie White, number 92, for the Philadelphia Eagles.
16. When he left the Eagles and went to the Packers, I stayed a fan of the Eagles and have been one ever since.
17. I took my test for my driver’s license on my 16th birthday.
18. I used my girlfriend’s parents’ car for the test.
19. I drove a 1976 Plymouth Grand Fury station wagon for a couple of years.
20. There was a hole in the back where the floor had rusted out, allowing all sorts of noxious fumes to come into the car.
21. I only drove it to and from school, about 5 miles each way.
22. My senior year, I traded down and drove a Datsun 510.
23. The air campaign of Operation Desert Storm started on my 18th birthday, hours after I’d registered for the draft.
24. I was in the chess club and on the varsity wrestling team at the same time.
25. I studied German for four years, certain I’d never need to know any Spanish.
26. My Marine Corps recruiter took me to Wright-Patterson Air Base in Dayton, to audition for the Marine Corps Band program, called the Musician Enlistment Option Program (MEOP).
27. I signed my agreement to enter the Delayed Entry Program on my Dad’s birthday, two months after the start of Operation Desert Storm.
28. I’ve been stationed in San Diego for most of the last 14 years.
29. I still don’t know very much Spanish. If I want to speak Spanish, I’ll go to Mexico. If people from Mexico come to America, they should speak English. If it’s good enough to be the official language of the court system, why isn’t it good enough for everything else?
30. I graduated High School in 1991.
31. I marched in Drum Corps International in 1991, the summer after I graduated. I marched in a division II corps called “The Limited Edition” because each year’s show is a one season run, or a limited edition performance.
32. I never took the SAT.
33. I scored a 27 on the ACT. My sister scored a 29 a couple of years later.
34. I was accepted to Ohio State as an architect major… AFTER I’d joined the Marine Corps.
35. I built models in my teens, mostly WWII aircraft, but some NASCAR models, and ships as well.
36. My favorite driver was Dale Earnhardt.
37. I took a quiz that indicated my “life number” is 3.
38. I got a tattoo in 1994 on my shoulder.
39. It’s a spider web that has my initials (W.E.B.) integrated into the design.
40. When people first see it, they tend to ask if I’ve done any prison time.
41. I have never been in jail.
42. I went to Parris Island, South Carolina, in February 1992.
43. After boot camp, I attended Marine Combat Training at Camp LeJeune, NC.
44. I spent the second half of 1992 in Little Creek, VA, attending the Armed Forces School of Music.
45. My first permanent duty station was Okinawa, Japan, as a member of the III Marine Expeditionary Force Band.
46. I bought my first car while still in Okinawa through the PX.
47. My dad drove me up to Dayton when I got back to Cincinnati so I could pick up my brand new car.
48. It was a 1993 Chevrolet Cavalier with only 13 miles on the odometer. It was white with grey cloth interior. It had a tape deck, cruise control, and A/C.
49. I drove that car from Cincinnati, to Mississippi (to visit family), to Camp Pendleton, CA in January 1994, where I joined the 1st Marine Division Band.
50. I met my wife in March 1994.
51. I was looking for a church I’d seen advertised in the yellow pages, but couldn’t find it at first because they were meeting in a school.
52. In August, 1994, I rededicated my life to Christ at a Harvest Crusade meeting at Qualcomm Stadium, but it wasn’t called “Qualcomm” yet, it was still “Jack Murphy”.
53. I started going out with Jennie as a friend later that month.
54. Our 5th “date” was the Marine Corps ball at the “Medieval Times” in Laguna Niguel. As part of the festivities, we didn’t get silverware for our meal, so we had to use our hands, wearing our dress uniforms and formal gowns.
55. She declared us a couple in January 1995 after dumping her boyfriend.
56. I was assigned as the duty NCO on my 22nd birthday.
57. Jen visited me at the band hall that evening and brought me a birthday cake of sorts. It was a package of Hostess cupcakes and she’d put a number “2” candle in each one.
58. That weekend, she and her mom took me to Disneyland.
59. In February, the band recorded a concert at the Center for the Performing Arts, in Escondido, CA and made CD’s. Those CD’s are still available for sale through Sgt Gritt, and other military related retail outlets.
60. I drove my Cavalier out to the Grand Canyon that summer, with Jennie, to introduce her to my parents and sister.
61. We camped at the Grand Canyon National Park, where my sister was working on a summer missionary team from college.
62. I think we instinctively knew we were going to get married some day because we decided to collect shot glasses and bought our first one at the Grand Canyon gift shop.
63. I proposed in August.
64. We were married in July, 1996.
65. We took the sunset train from Oceanside to Los Angeles after our wedding reception and stayed the night in a hotel close to LAX.
66. We spent our honeymoon in Hawaii. We stayed at the Hale Koa (Warrior’s Rest) which is a first rate hotel run by the military recreation department right on Waikiki.
67. Our first meal in Hawaii was at the California Pizza Kitchen and our waiter was originally from Vista, where my wife went to school.
68. When we returned, we learned that I had orders transferring me to the Pacific Fleet Band, in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.
69. We were not amused.
70. I got my orders modified to allow me to attend the School of Music advanced course back in VA.
71. I drove my Cavalier across the country again when we moved to Virginia.
72. We lived in a small apartment in Little Creek for 6 months while I attended the Armed Forces School of Music again.
73. While there, we learned the spot in Hawaii had been filled and I was being sent back to Camp Pendleton.
74. I got those orders modified to send us to Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, in Irvine, CA (it’s in OC).
75. El Toro closed in 1999 and I helped relocate the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing Band from El Toro to our new home at MCAS Miramar, in San Diego.
76. Jen and I moved into a “temporary” apartment in January, 1999.
77. I was screened for recruiting duty in early 2000.
78. I did not receive orders, so I applied to become a career planner.
79. I transferred to Marine Aircraft Group 39, at Camp Pendleton, in December, 1999 for duty as the Career Planner of Marine Medium Helicopter (Training) Squadron-164, the “Knightriders.”
80. I went to Quantico for 5 weeks to learn how to be a career planner.
81. We finally moved out of our apartment and into base housing in late 2000.
82. I traded in my Cavalier in 2002 as part of a deal to buy a Saturn VUE. It had over 125,000 miles on it and had had no work more serious than a brake job or three done on it the whole time I owned it.
83. The VUE was totaled in a broadside collision in 2005, with less than 50,000 miles on the odometer.
84. We replaced it with another Saturn, an L300.
85. I call my son, William III, “Trey” to avoid the confusion I had to deal with asking about “Big Bill” or “Little Bill” or people calling me Billy.
86. Trey calls me “Big Bill” and himself “Little Bill” after the show of the same title that Bill Cosby produces.
87. I made a lateral move to become a “Career Retention Specialist” in 2002.
88. I was transferred to 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion in late 2002, just before the battalion went on holiday leave.
89. I deployed to Kuwait as part of the build up preceding the March, 2003 invasion of Iraq, dubbed “Operation Iraqi Freedom”.
90. My wife bought me a truck to replace my car while I was deployed. (reference #82) I’d been without a car of my own since trading in both of our cars for that VUE. She’d had a Saturn SL2.
91. I returned home in late June, just in time for the 4th of July, 2003. I wore jeans and long sleeves all day because I was still used to the heat of Ad-Diwaniyah and I felt cold.
92. We went to my best friend’s house for a cook-out and because you could see three sets of fire works from his balcony.
93. In June, 2004, my daughter was born.
94. I was transferred to 1st Battalion/5th Marines in January, 2005.
95. I deployed to Ramadi, in the Al-Anbar province of Iraq to assist with Stabilization and Security Operations. During our time there, we registered 80% of the city’s population to vote in the October and December elections and lost 15 Marines and one sailor (a corpsman) to insurgent activity. We killed and captured a lot more than that and the city was in better condition when we left than it was when we arrived.
96. When I left home in January, my daughter could barely crawl. When I came home in September, she was walking.
97. My favorite color is blue, but my family crest is mostly red.
98. My two favorite college football teams are the Ohio State Buckeyes and whoever’s playing against Michigan.
99. I still love the Cincinnati Reds, but I also like to see the Padres win.
100. This list wasn’t as hard to put together as I thought it would be.

So there it is. Thank you for making it this far. It's been a fun 100 entries and I'm already fomulating some ideas for entry #101.