I did a four year service for the United States Air Force that gave me the opportunity to learn a new skill, travel, and meet some of the finest people I have ever worked with. When I signed up, I tested pretty well on my Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) Test where I thought I had a pretty good chance on landing an excellent AF Job. Those that know, it's the military's pickings first. I was actually one of the lucky ones where my recruiter did not fake the funk on me and told me I had no guarantees. I was worried, but felt I had nothing to lose. Plus, everyone was telling me since I did so well on the ASVAB to join the Air Force and you're better off not joining the Army, Navy or the Marines for a bunch of reasons (Sorry!). Don't fret, I actually like all the other branches and thank those who are in service, have serviced, and have made the ultimate sacrifice. God bless them all. One of the other reasons I didn't join the other branches such as the Navy was because I got sea-sick. No way Jose would I torture myself feeding fish off the side of a ship for four years. The Army, I just never really gave it thought. The Marines, the same thing, I saw those commercials where they were in a boat and I was like no way. And you can imagine what I thought about joining the Coast Guard. So the Air Force was the only logical thing to do. Did it, got on a plane to fly to boot camp in Lackland AFB, Texas and guess what happened during that flight? I got air sick!! So there I am, discovered my real problem was with motion sickness and I'm joining the Air Force, great. To top it all off, the Air Force makes you fill out a questionnaire of things you don't like such as, "Are you afraid of heights?" and "Do you have problems with following instructions?" I figured it was to properly place you in a job and not put you in something where you may not function well, such as boom operator who has to refuel planes in midair with precise hand controls and concentration. Or be able to turn "The Key" on command. One question that vividly stood out with me was this one: "Are you afraid of seeing blood?" The reason, I made sure I filled in that bubble "YES" really good as there was no way in heck I wanted to see any blood. Guess what the Air Force decided my job to be? My four years of the Air Force was solely dedicated to providing health care services to all that walk through the military hospital doors. I had become a Medical Service Journeyman/Emergency Medical Technician (E.M.T.), great. I overcame the fear of blood but not the motion sickness and blended into my new career quite well but the major thing was I did not have to fly, thank God.

This finally leads me to the drawings below. I had the opportunity to lend my artful hand into creating some t-shirt designs for an E.M.T. competition called an "E.M.T. Rodeo" at McConnell AFB, Kansas. The first year (1993) I drew the symbolic hospital cross with a bull in the center. The idea here was to get the wording "E.M.T. Rodeo" to stand out but to also have something that resembled a rodeo. If I drew the bull in detail, it would have washed out the "E.M.T. Rodeo". Therefore, I used stippling to faintly pattern the bull so it stood out in a darker background but not to stand out more than the words. When transferred to silk-screened t-shirts, this combination worked out really well as you can vividly see the wording and an outline of a bull, plus all within a hospital cross. I was happy with the results.

For the second year (1994), I wanted something not so rectangular, something that was different from the previous year just in case a lot of previous year t-shirts showed up at the second competition. So I designed a circular drawing making sure the words stood out as it should, a rodeo themed horse, and again including a symbolic drawing for E.M.T.'s (The Serpent and Staff with the Star of Life). (Pen and Ink with Vinyl Letters)