I first came to Alaska with friends from Florida in 1974 after graduating high school, hitchhiking and jumping freight trains from Clearwater to Seattle, where we got on an Alaska Marine Highway ferry to venture into southeast Alaska. After working on a salmon seiner out of Sitka until the fishing season ended, I worked in one of the sawmills in Wrangell in the fall before returning to Florida to attend college.

After studying photography and Emergency Medical Technology at Daytona Beach Community College, I transferred to Florida State University in Tallahassee where I studied anthropology, geology, and geography. During that time, I also started a family and obtained my paramedic certification from Tallahassee Community College. In 1985, with my son, daughter, pregnant wife, 5 years paramedic experience, and a B.S. Degree in Geography, I returned to Alaska.

We lived our first winter in Alaska in Fairbanks in a log cabin with wood heat and no running water, exchanging labor for rent on an old 40 acre homestead farm. Additionally, I drove a school bus part time during those Fairbanks days. In May of 1986 until October 1989 I worked on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline as a Security Guard/Medic. In March of 1989 I was involved in the initial response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, being stationed as a medic upon the Exxon Valdez while she sat hard aground Bligh Reef. This duty ended the day she was floated off and taken away for repairs.

I have worked for the Anchorage Fire Department since November 1989. For the fire department I have had the opportunity to serve as a paramedic, paramedic/firefighter, Emergency Medical Services Battalion Chief, and Operations Battalion Chief.

Since 1991, I have also taught an Emergency Medical Technician course at the University of Alaska Anchorage every spring and fall semester.

I have been a volunteer with the American Heart Association since 1996, serving on the State of Alaska Emergency Cardiovascular Care Committee as a member and chair, and also as the National Faculty Advanced Cardiac Life Support representative for the state from 1999-2001.

I am currently the Vice President of the Loren Marshall Foundation (LMF), a non-profit I helped form in 2006 to “Promote Excellence in Emergency Medicine on the Last Frontier.” With the help of colleagues, I have coordinated the LMF Resuscitation Conferences held in Anchorage in 2007 and 2008, with planning for the May 8-10, 2009 conference now well underway.

My wife Karen and I own a small waterfront bungalow rental property in San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico, a Crealock 37 in Seward, Alaska, a small piece of property in north Florida, and several rental properties in Anchorage. We enjoy travel, sailing, making music, and writing.

I am honored to have the opportunity to work for the election of Vic Vickers to the United States Senate. Vic is an honest down to earth person, this in addition to being a historian, writer, entrepreneur, and attorney. Vic communicates a vision of being drawn into the US Senate race to battle the giants of corruption and all their tentacles. With Vic I see and share the vision of facing a huge battle to do what is right. Because, in the world of Alaska state and national politics, things “just ain’t right.”

Vic Vickers has a clear vision and sense of what is needed to help make things right in Alaska. I want to help communicate, organize, and spread Vic’s message. Because it is the right thing to do, and when heard, is clearly the right thing to support.