Kevin Barry Maguire
Hello and welcome to my site. If you’ve read Aftermath of Disaster: Book 1 – It Has Begun, you already know a little about me. Jack needed a backstory so I gave him some of mine. I’m not Jack and Jack isn’t me but Jack shares some of my story. I did grow up in Steilacoom, WA and was a Boy Scout. I have hiked and hunted the area surrounding Mt. Rainier (Ashford side) and have hiked inside the park.
My father did start Troop 471 in Steilacoom and passed away at the age of 42. My father was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and emigrated to the United States after he graduated from Queen’s University. Dad was a helicopter pilot until the Army found out he got blinded in his left eye in Vietnam. So I was born in Indiana and lived in Alabama, Kentucky, Ft Lewis, Germany, Ft Lewis again, and finally ended up in Steilacoom. That was when I entered 4th grade.
Education
I graduated from Steilacoom High School in 1987 and joined the Navy as a photographer. I spent 5 years in the Navy, stationed at Pearl Harbor, HI. Five years in the Navy and I spent a grand total of one week on a boat. I was stationed at the Fleet Intelligence Center Pacific and was there when it consolidated with the other services and became the Joint Intelligence Center Pacific. During that changeover I also worked at the 548th RTG on Hickam Air Force Base. That’s when I learned how the other half lived! The Air Force eats well, great chow halls. To be fair, Navy chow halls don’t suck. They’re just not as good as the Air Force “dining facilities.”
After the Navy, I spent a lot of years going through college. I got married during the time and my wife already had children. (We got divorced after 11 years.) It was a mesh of work, school, work, school. I spent my first two years at Pierce College, Fort Steilacoom. Then I moved on to St Martin’s College. After that I wanted a computer programming degree so I went to Clover Park Technical College in Lakewood, WA. I graduated about 6 months after the bubble burst. Horrible timing. I never wrote a single program for anyone and forgot most of what I learned.
Married Again
I met my wife Alla through a mutual friend. We have one daughter together and live in Alla’s country of Ukraine. Our daughter was born here and speaks Russian, Ukrainian, and some English. She’s learning English quickly though. Alla also speaks all three languages – lucky for me because my Russian is still not very good. Russian is a very hard language!
Prepping
As with Jack’s story, I was a Boy Scout and “Be Prepared” was ingrained in me. Western Washington is on a major fault line and I did experience a few earthquakes – one very big one. I’ve taken many advanced CPR and First Aid classes and used CPR once to save my daughter, who was about 3 at the time. She was crying because a girl at the playground was being mean to her. Then she dropped like a rock and wasn’t breathing. Training took over and I had her back quickly. That was two years ago and I hope I never have to use it again. But if I do, I know I can.
I’ve always made sure I had enough on hand to live through 5 days in an emergency. I’ll say this – prepping in Ukraine is not easy. Most of the food here is fresh, the only processed food is pasta and bread. Canned food doesn’t exist except some fish. I can get olives and pickles in jars though. Fresh food is a good thing and I do love it. But storing it is problematic, especially in the small apartments and houses here. When we return to the US, those issues will resolve themselves.
If you have any questions you can email me here. That email is for my review website – Review Alcove. So don’t worry when you see a reply from that email address.
Speaking of Review Alcove, that’s where you can see my blog posts and reviews dealing with prepper topics: Review Alcove Preppers and Survivalists
You can return to the home page here. You can view my Amazon Author page here.
