The summer of 1999 was my last summer at Rockmont, serving on the A-Team—and what a great summer it was. By September 1999, I had reported to Navy Officer Candidate School in Pensacola, Florida. After commissioning as a Naval Officer, I remained in Pensacola for Naval Flight Officer training and earned my wings in May 2001.

That same month, I moved to Whidbey Island, Washington, where I began training in the EA-6B Prowler and became an ECMO (Electronic Countermeasures Officer, basically Goose from TopGun). Much of my role involved mentoring and teaching younger pilots and ECMOs how to fly and fight the Prowler. In many ways, it was not all that different from being a counselor and Tribal Director at Rockmont.

In the summer of 2007, a friend and his wife set me up on a blind date, and since then I’ve been with my wife, Bekki, and my stepson Dylan. In 2009, I moved to Atsugi, Japan, and while deployed aboard an aircraft carrier, I proposed to Bekki over email and phone. It’s a long story I’m always happy to share around the fire pit, but the short version is that we were married in Reno, Nevada, just six days later.

Since then, we’ve added two amazing children, Harper and Griffin, to our family and have lived in California, Colorado, and Virginia. I concluded my 25-year Navy career in Virginia Beach while serving at NATO Supreme Allied Command Transformation (SACT).

After retiring from the Navy, I worked for about a year as a Navy contractor—think Kelly McGillis in Top Gun, but hotter. In January 2026, I began my second full-time career at Camp Rockmont. Today, my family and I are proud to call Black Mountain home permanently.

I couldn’t narrow it down to just one memory without spending some serious time thinking about it, but many of the best times of my life happened at Rockmont.
Trip Hughes is one of the funniest people I’ve ever known, and many of our antics would have to rank near the top of the list—whether it was “Beavering” Rick Sandman or making complete fools of ourselves with the Mountain Campers.
Dan Davis is basically the Steve Martin of Rockmont: part musician, part prop comic, and mostly just pure funny. Hap Endler can make me laugh 24/7.
Honestly, I think whatever the funniest memory from Rockmont is, it probably involves all three of them.

As a camper, I would say the most meaningful moment was the day I became a Christian. It was in 1988 while I was a Ranger. There was nothing dramatic or flashy about it—just me praying quietly in my bed in the Ranger Station. It’s hard to get much closer to God than that.
As a staff member, I can’t point to one single defining moment. More than anything, I just hope I was able to set a positive example for some of the campers and younger staff members along the way.

Anyone and everyone I camped with or worked alongside during my years at Rockmont helped shape who I am today.

Everyone who helped make me who I am today—which, honestly, is just about everyone who was at Rockmont.