My name is John A. Schwartz.  I grew up on a dairy farm in Northwest Wisconsin with five older sisters and one younger brother.  I attended a one-room rural school (South Milltown School) for the first six years.  The consolidation of three towns closed the rural schools, and a new high school (Unity High School) was built centrally located to all.  After graduation, I moved to Hopkins, Minnesota, where I worked several different jobs.

 

I entered the Air Force about two years after graduation.  After basic training at Lackland AFB near San Antonio, Texas, I received my electronics training in Ground Radio Repair at Keesler AFB, near Biloxi, Mississippi.  I spent the rest of my enlistment at Ellsworth AFB, near Rapid City, South Dakota.   

 

After I was discharged from the Air Force, I moved to Shakopee, Minnesota.  I continued working in the electronics field at companies in Bloomington and Apple Valley.  When one of the companies closed (in the mid 1970s), I moved back to Wisconsin.  I continued working in the electronics field until the last company I worked for closed (moved the manufacturing overseas).

 

 Assistance was available for retraining (because of the loss of jobs to overseas), so I decided to return to school.  I enrolled at WITC in New Richmond, Wisconsin, for a two-year associate degree course: CIS-Network Specialist.  I graduated from this course in May of 2004.