Born in Gransee, Germany in 1945, just a few weeks after the surrender of Germany in WWII, his first often-interrupted four years of education was in Germany followed by a continuation of elementary and high school in New York. Inducted into the U.S. Army in 1966, he graduated from the U.S. Army OCS as a Second Lieutenant, spent a tour of duty in Vietnam, seeing heavy action as platoon leader, earning the Bronze Star with a “V.”