Introduction

Hello everyone, I am Patrick Cross.  This is my introduction to ENT 3003, please enjoy!  To start this story, I was born in Gainesville, FL quite a few years ago.  I grew up in a small town called Branford located about an hour away from Gainesville on the Suwannee River.  After I graduated from high school, I went to Lake City Community College for a few semesters in the Golf Course program.  After completing school, I worked for a year on a golf course near Tampa, but decided that career field was not for me.  Instead, I decided to give the United States Marine Corps a try.  That career choice was a good fit, so much so that I stayed in for 21 years.  I served the majority of my time as an Amphibious Assault Vehicle Repairman.  This was an exciting job, and allowed me to travel all over the world.  I can honestly say I have been around the world twice.  Some places were nice, and some places were not so nice.  I would say my favorite was Palma Spain.  While in the Marines, I was also a recruiter for three years in Lakeland FL. This gave me valuable skills in sales, and communications which I use on a daily basis. 
I retired from the Marines in January of 2012 after 21 years and moved back to the Gainesville area.  I wanted to be able to market myself better so I decided to go to school at Santa Fe College in order to earn a degree in management.  While there, I started a Federal Work-Study position which led me to the career I am in today, Human Resources.  I currently am employed with the Department of Veterans Affairs at the Malcom Randall VA Medical Center in Gainesville, FL in the Staffing section of HR. This is an awesome place to work!  At the same time, I also married my beautiful wife, and am closer to my two sons!
That is my life in a nutshell!