Chapter 1

Before I get to my wreck of a life, I guess I need to give you my background. First of all, I was a late-in-life baby, my mother was fifty-two and my dad was fifty-five. My sister, Alice, was thirty-one and my brother, Dwayne, was thirty-five when I was born. Needless to say I was a surprise. My mother, Ruth Ann Rothman, thought she had already started the change of life when she stopped having periods at fifty-one. Before her next birthday the doctor confided in her that she was not just putting on a little weight due to menopause, she was pregnant. My dad, Harlan Lawrence Rothman, about had a heart attack upon hearing the news. Both parents were looking forward to retirement in a few years, and they really didn't look forward to raising a child in their fifties and sixties.

For about the first seventeen years of my life I was known as Bobbie. Well actually Robert Harlan Rothman, that was my birth name, but Bobbie was my name to my family. The doctors were amazed that I grew up so well. At seventeen I was 6'-2, 190 lbs and had already taken two college courses and graduated first in my class of 215 students. I hated the speech I had to make. I searched the internet for valedictorian speeches and cobbled several together and said my piece.

The first of June found me in Odessa, Texas trying to figure out which service would let me see the world and not end up dead as a result. I decided on the Navy, right, 'Join the Navy and see the world', NOT!!!

I was sent to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, which is located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee. Unlike other service's basic training, much of Navy Boot Camp is conducted indoors. Yep -- there's indoor marching and drill, the confidence course is indoors, and even weapons (shotgun and pistol) are fired indoors. (This makes a lot of sense if you think about it -- much of Navy life and duty is spent inside a ship or a submarine).

After Basic, I was assigned to North Island Naval Complex, Coronado, California. During the three years I was stationed there, I was on a ship, a support tender ship at that, for a sum total of twenty-one days during several naval exercises. Needless to say I was pissed, but in the field of electronics as an Aviation Electronics Technician or AT, it gave me time to go back to school and study for my computer sciences degree. I finished my bachelor's degree and was studying for my masters at San Diego State, when orders came down for me to be transferred to be an Information Systems Technician or computer systems analyst for the Navy at NAS Corpus Christi, Texas.

Wow I was moving up in the world, but not going anywhere cool. By now I was a PO3 (Petty Officer, third class) or E-4 for most other services. This new job was a big promotion as I would be the new PO2 for the base IT systems, mainly based on my education, and I had impressed my Lt. Commander (or Major for you others) back at San Diego. He suggested that if I wanted, he would put me in for OCS school so I could be an officer. I did discuss it with him but we figured it would be the kiss of death as far as seeing the world would be concerned.

Once in south Texas, I looked around for a college to finish my masters, but there was none locally, however I did find an online program from the University of Houston, Victoria Campus. That was not too far away, only 80 miles. I know to most of you 80 miles is a lot, but in Texas, that's just around the corner. Just think of it this way. From Austin to the border east is about 250 miles, north to Oklahoma is 270 miles and west to El Paso is 576 miles and south to the coast at Port Lavaca is 150 miles, but to Corpus Christi from Austin is 217 miles. Austin is about in the center of the state as far as cities and populations go. Sure there are more centrally located cities, but the effect is the same.

So now I was getting set to finish up my last two and a half years of a six year hitch back in Texas. I really wasn't looking forward to this.

While in California I did get to see my sister, twice, but I had nothing in common with her and her family except my parents; too much of an age difference. I did get to meet my brother once when he came down to my sister's place when I was there. Again no connection, so basically I was an only child. We lost both my parents while I was in San Diego. Their house exploded when a storm came up and blew out the water heater pilot and the house filled with gas. When the electricity came back on after the storm and the furnace kicked in, the whole house was soon gone. The resulting fire partially cremated my parents while they were still in their bed. I went back for the funeral and met my brother and sister for one last time. Mom and Dad didn't leave us much. We got the land the house sat on, only fifteen acres, and we split their insurance money which amounted to fifteen thousand apiece. They had enough money in the bank to cover their outstanding bills and to pay for the further cremation and burial. My brother and sister agreed for me to keep the deed for the land and that was it.

When I moved to Texas, I had planned to get a new house built but really who wants to live on fifteen acres of desert plains five miles outside of Marfa, Texas? Nobody, that's who, I mean the population is just over twenty-one hundred people and it is the county seat. Some fancy New York artist came to town a while back and bought the old Army base, Fort D.A. Russell, and it is now a museum for several artists. Other than that, the only claims to fame is a few movies made there, like "Giant", "There Will Be Blood", and "No Country for Old Men" and the Marfa Lights.

Now the Marfa Lights are something else again, they are visible every clear night between Marfa and the Paisano Pass when you face southwest (toward the Chinati Mountains). At times they appear colored as they twinkle in the distance. They move about, split apart, melt together, disappear, and reappear. Presidio County residents have been watching the lights for well over a hundred years. The first historical record of them recalls that in 1883 a young cowhand, named Robert Reed Ellison, saw a flickering light while he was driving cattle through Paisano Pass and wondered if it was the campfire of Apache Indians. He was told by other settlers that they often saw the lights, but when they investigated, they found no ashes or other evidence of a campsite. Presidio County has now built a viewing station nine miles east of town on US Route 67 near the site of the old air base. Each year, enthusiasts gather for the annual Marfa Lights Festival.

I did however get to sell my land to a new developer as he wanted to cash in on the Marfa Lights phenomena, as you could see them quite plainly from my land on clear nights. For myself, I never thought they were all so much of a mystery. I grew up with them and other than nobody knowing what they were or why they appeared, it was not a big deal for me. I mean come on now, what would aliens want with some hundred and forty thousand square miles of desert. Well maybe again, that would be the perfect place to hide UFO's. The elevation starts about two thousand feet and goes up to over a mile. There are the cities in the Chihuahuan Desert of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, and Torreon in Mexico; and El Paso, Texas, and Albuquerque, Las Cruces and Roswell in New Mexico. Hey maybe there is some connection to the Marfa Lights and the Roswell Incident after all.