Born and raised in the small town of Trenton, Missouri, he served his country in the U.S. Air Force as a surveyor, helping build airports in Saudia Arabia, though he claimed to have spent much of his time learning to play chess down in the basement of a warehouse while officials tried to track down equipment that had been mistakenly shipped elsewhere.
After being honorably discharged, while studying to be a chiropractor, he learned of a program that would not only pay for transportation to Australia for him,