Born in July 1957 to Joseph and Jean Olsen, the 4^th child of 6. Honesty, hard work and taking ownership for what you do are the most important values I was taught as a child. My mother was always there for me and supported me without question (I was named after her father), my father lead a life of example, I learned my values from his actions.

I grew up in the very small blue collar town of Sparrows Point, Maryland. Dad went from hourly laborer to Superintendent and at the same time attended Johns Hopkins University at night to earn his teaching degree in Business Management, but it seems like he was always there for us, he was and will always be my hero.

In 1970 at the age of 13 we moved, by the time I joined the US Army in January 1978 we moved 2 more times, I guess that is when I learned that wherever I took my shoes off was home. I cannot recall all of the places I called home during my 21 year career in the Army but the short list is Charleston, South Carolina – Augusta, Georgia – Frankfurt, Germany – Eschwege, Germany  - Ft. Lewis, Washington – Karlsruhe, Germany – Mannheim, Germany – Saudi Arabia – Iraq – Kuwait – Bosnia – Kosovo and finally in 2000 my present and final home in Knopp-Labach, Germany.

The proudest moment of my life occurred in June 1987, my son Kai was born. At the time of this writing he is a hard working 28 year old man that I could not be prouder of.

I retired from the Army in August 1998 and work odd jobs till February 1999 when I was employed by the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) in Germany. LRMC is the largest tri-service medical center outside of the continental United States supporting our heroes from the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines.

In 2000 I met my soulmate Martina. My life with her over the last 16 years has been a dream come true. We live in a small village in the south west area of Rheinland Pfalz. We have a small, old, sand stone house with a big garden. Together we grow a variety of veggies, mostly jalapenos, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, lettuce, zucchini and all kinds of herbs. Each fall we can tomato sauce and salsa to enjoy year round.

In 2001 I decided to grow a pumpkin for Kai to have at Halloween, that normal size cucurbit was the start of my biggest and most passionate hobby of growing giant pumpkins. I am also very interest in sports and enjoy putting some meat on a grill and having a good time with friends.