I was born in Delaware just across the bridge from where my family lived in New Jersey. My great-grandparents immigrated from Italy and owned a grocery store. As a child, my family moved around from Manchester to Zanesville to Des Moines to Indianapolis and Evansville for 7th-12th grades. After graduation, I attended IU and DePauw University for one year before enlisting in the Navy as a Seaman Apprentice. I was asked to take a language aptitude test in boot camp to see how I could be most useful in the program. In 1986, after Bootcamp in San Diego, I moved to Monterey, California, and was tasked with learning Arabic at the Defense LANGUAGE Institute. I graduated with honors and then attended additional training at  Good-fellow Air force base in San Angelo, Texas, and Correy Station in Pensacola, FL.  My ultimate duty station was housed in the National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort George G. Meade, MD.  From Fort Meade, I was deployed to the Persian Gulf twice.