My name is Dale Stiles and I currently reside in Central Florida between Daytona Beach and Orlando. I am married with three kids. You can read about what we're up to in the "Family Scrapbook."
I was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma but moved to different locations in the state including Enid in northern Oklahoma and Durant near the Texas border. I started school in Durant at Washington Irving Elementary and then moved back to Shawnee in the summer between 2nd and 3rd grades. I lived in Shawnee until I joined the National Guard and attended boot camp in March of 1988 at Fort Benning, Georgia where I was awarded Top Gunner on the TOW II missile system. It was one of the highlights of my career. After returning to Shawnee to fulfill my commitment to the Guard I struggled to find a job, keep a fiancee and attend Jr. College. After several months of that I grew frustrated and decided to go full time but the Army wouldn't take me because the Guard had paid for my training and would not allow me to go active until I had completed two years. I took a friend of mine to join up with the Navy and ended up finding a loop hole in the system and joined the Navy in 1989. I have really enjoyed traveling the world and living in different places ever since.
I went back to boot camp because I had served less than a year in the Army and I needed to learn the Navy's terminologies and take my swimming tests. I did my basic in San Diego but then attended school in Great Lakes, IL to become a Fire Controlman. I learned basic and advanced electronics, synchros, gyros, radar principles and how to manually solve the fire control solution even though our computers actually triangulate the location of the targets based on data provided by the radar by comparing it to the last several seconds of the target being tracked. We then assign the appropriate weapon and control the firing of the weapon system. I ended up staying in Great Lakes to train on the MK86 Gun Fire Control System and then traveled back out to California to report to the USS Oldendorf which was changing home ports from Japan to Long Beach where it received a complete overhaul. It was while the ship was in dry dock that I reported on board. The yards are dirty and the ship looked like a big piece of moldy swiss cheese with scaffolding all over its hull and superstructure.
It was during our stay that I was introduced to Compton, Hollywood, Urban Cowboys, the LA riots and countless oddities. It was in one of the area establishments that I met my future wife at the very pool tables that Thelma and Louise was filmed. We were married a short time after the ship pulled out of dry dock and set sail for our new home port of San Diego. Since then we have lived in Great Lakes, Hawaii and Florida at my different assignments.
While we were in Hawaii I was promoted to the highly coveted rank of Chief Petty Officer in 2003 and moved to Florida to be a recruiter. Out of all the things I've done in the Navy I was the least successful at recruiting. They say it will make you or break you. Well, it broke me. I'll probably never make Senior Chief like so many of my friends but I really can't complain, I've had a great career and have many great stories to tell.
I am currently attached to the USS Carney stationed in Mayport which is tucked into the Atlantic Beach district of Jacksonville, FL. I've put some Naval pictures and sea stories up in the "Navy Pages."
I've owned many vehicles through the years. So many, in fact, that I have a hard time keeping track of them all. I can't even tell you if I have a picture of all of them or not. It drives my wife crazy! pun intended I've also owned several motorcycles as well. The last five have all been Harleys if you include the two V-Rods. You can see some of those vehicles and hear about some of the better rides I've been on in the "My Rides" section.
I also added several helpful links in a links area. Not sure how much I can store on the page because GeoCities has gotten stingy with space and usage.
You can also check out a whole lot more by visiting my profile on MySpace at www.myspace.com/dalestiles