Seeing life through my eyes in the past 10 years would be like reading a fairy tale with a horrible twisted ending. I won't take you back that far, but back to the start of my professional IT career.

After my dad lost his job and decided to not pay for my college, I had no choice but to join the US Armed Forces. In April of 2001, I joined the US Army. ON September 11th, 2001, I experienced the fire of Patriotism that burns in my heart, though I didn't realize it at the time. Watching the 9/11 footage as it happened live, I physically felt like my face was on fire. I was so angry at what I was seeing. After I did my initial training, I did a 3 year tour in Germany working on some ancient system that's not even worth mentioning in a Resume, I nearly deployed to Iraq/Afghanistan several times during those 3 years, but some how dodged that bullet. After that, I was sent to the Pentagon for 3 years working database support. In April of 2007, after my 6 year tour, I got out of the Army and moved to Herndon, VA working for a DoD Contractor; BAE Systems. I was hired as a DBA, but when I showed up at the work site, I found that there were no DBs. And was put at a Window Administrators Spot. I worked hard for about 8 months trying to survive.

On April 15th, 2007, I made a drastic decision that has forever changed my life. I professed to the world, that I believe that God is real, that Jesus sacrificed himself to atone for my sins and that I will follow Christ's teachings. Check me out here, in this video. I am the dude,bro in the maroon hat @ 0:39 and 2:51.

It was about that time that I got a message from God. It was the first time God had spoken to me, but it was a clear message. Check out this thread here if you want to read the whole story. To sum it up, I explain how God talked to me. I asked God why my heart was so hard, as my hard emotions was putting a gap in my marriage. God responded, by telling me "your heart was not made to be hard, but strong. You will need a strong heart to survive the storm that is coming."

So what required a strong heart? This:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xjjK...eature=channel
(try not to let it shock you too much).

I came home one day to find a packet from the Army on my doorstep. In it was orders returning me back to active duty status for a period of 14 months in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. I was to go to Afghanistan. I proudly and nobly survived my country.

During the last few months of my deployment, I contacted my old manager He told me that over the past 14 months, they had filled my position and that I should look elsewhere in the company for a position. This is of course, illegal, but being the "big picture" type guy (vs. small details). I tried to be a good little corporate soldier and not sue them right away (BIG mistake, I should have sued there *bleep* right away). I applied to various positions in the company that I thought I might fit into. I very soon realized that the company did not give a crap about me at all. I applied to a handful of positions. I went through resume screenings, application submittals and interview and rejected from all of them. I was being treated like a new higher (again illegal) I, then, applied to every System Administrator Job in the state of VA within my company. I was rejected on all accounts, desperate, I started calling the managers of the positions that did not call me back. Some of the HR reps, were happy to see me so anxious to fill their slots, but I still was getting rejected by the managers. After 3-4 weeks (including burning up 1 week of my vacation time), I finally found a job. I was to be a Windows Admin for a new government costumer. The problem was it was 2 hours away from where I used to live. So I got a hotel in the area and started looking for a place to live. I found a house for sale for ridiculously cheap. $229,000 (vs. $850,000 before I left for war, thank you recession). In total I spent over $5000 moving me and my family.

Meanwhile back at work...

On day one, I found very quickly that a big mistake was made. The costumer started talking about building a website from scratch, doing all these fancy graphics and flash videos. I had NO idea what he was talking about. In the first 15 minutes talking to my new government sponsor, my world came apart. He said "You're the web developer, right?" "No, I'm a Windows Admin" His face said it all, he uttered out. "We don't need a Windows Administrator, we need a website developer." I called my supervisor (from my company) and explained the situation. I needed training and I needed it fast. My 3rd day there, I gave my supervisor a list of classes that I needed to go to to perform my job. On day 5, I was told that my company was not going to pay for me to get training (illegal for the 3rd time) and that the government should pay for it. I inform my company that it was the law. They HAVE to train me, but they refused. I asked our costumer to pay for the training. On day 10. Two weeks after starting, I am asked by the costumer to not return as I do not fulfill the requirements, to put it simple. The costumer fired me. I went back to my corporate office and raised hell. I told them that I knew my legal rights and I had not problem enforcing them. They sat me in a cubicle at the corporate office for a few days, days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months. During this whole time, I was searching the corporate job listing website, but nothing. Finally I was told one day by my supervisor that I need to start looking for a job outside the company. Pretty much they were telling me I needed to quit. (illegal x 4)

So where does LINUX come in? It's funny the way things work out. I contacted the Department of Labor and filed a complaint against BAE Systems for being in violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) after being told for the 2nd time to look for jobs outside the company (the 2nd time by email). All of a sudden everyone is helping me get a job. I am soon placed in a Information System Administrator II position to "try out" (I was told, that I do not officially have the position by my Manager. The DoL said this was probably because I could be fired by the government sponsor again and BAE could say that I did not officially have the position, preventing further legal deficiencies). Problem is, the position is all LINUX. Also, soon after I am given a 5% raise and cut a check for about $2500. BUT it was too late. I had already paid $5000+ in moving costs. My benefits cost me another $2000/yr vs. my last position. Plus I still need training for the new position. I got fired for them refusing to train me last time, I won't let it happen again. But really, it all came down to me being extremely pissed. I answers my country's call to serve and serve honorably, I am forced to spend thousands of dollars to move my family and then I am fired by the costumer and told to quit by my company, how could I NOT be pissed.

The Department of Labor has concluded it's investigation and I got a letter from them citing 3 points of violation. Which is golden should we go to a court (which I am hoping does not happen). So far I have been sent to 1 Red Hat class (RH033) with 1 Red Hat class scheduled in Jan of 2010 (RH133).

Currently the legal matter with me and BAE System is ongoing.

And that is my wall of text... I mean story.

WOW...Quite a story.
Well you seem to be handling it very well.

laserspeeddemon,

Thank you for your story.

I am trying to be helpful here, so please bear with me.

Your life is clearly very complicated and I think you should really visit your "family doctor" and try to explain your thoughts and problems to them.

They will be able to help you with your problems, but I do not think that posting here on LQ is going to help you much.

Here on LQ we tend to fix linux problems: "My DVD will not play", rather than philosophical problems: "I will follow Christ's teachings..."

Seek help, get well soon, and good luck.

At first, I started to lawl, but then I couldn't decide if you were trying to be funny, serious or mocking me. Either way, it was just a good read in the General Forum, where such threads are expected to live. I am here to learn LINUX and become a friend in the community.

Besides I don't think my doctor will have a cure for following Christ's teachings.

Linux is intuitive. Just gotta mess with it (learning C helps, I cranked through "The C Programming Language" by Dennis M Ritchie in a week and a half, and it helped to illustrate a lot of what Linux is made of.)

Thanks for your service, and I'm sorry to hear that yet another individual is getting the smelly end of the stick from .gov, but from the stories I've heard from my buddies, .gov aint your friend when you need it to be.

It's not .gov that screwed me it is .org. The corporate machine, though .gov refused to support me after the investigation.

.gov and .org: two sides of the same coin.

Surely you mean: .gov and .com? .org is non-profit making.

Yes, .com would be more suitable.

or .gov.uk, same thing really.

Hmmmm, never knew that. Then yes I mean .com

laserspeeddemon,

Its always good to get it off your chest. By your reading and your understanding of the situation, you got screwed by your contracting agent (company) and not the government office to whom you were body shopped.

Welcome to LQ.

AFAIK, Red Hat class (RH033) is the basic introduction and prepares you for the RHCT certification while (RH133) is the prepares you for the RHCE certification. If you successfully pass the RHCT cource, you can get a waiver for some RHCE modules and you should bargain for some discount - particularly if you are going to end up paying for it.

All the best.

End

I don't want a waiver. I want to learn in-depth knowledge of how it all works.

To the same effect. The military has something called the AARTS-Transcripts. If I accepted these, nearly 1.5 years worth of credits hours would be under my belt. I could get my Associates in 1 semster, (if I even pass the last .5 years worth of classes), but I still wouldn't know what I was doing.

I'd rather not have a diploma and perform excellently, then have a 4-year piece of paper and not know what the *bleeep* I was doing; which seems to be a trend among the IT field work force.

There's a book called Linux Street Smarts that separates and explains each program used in linux system administration. It's like a cliffnotes version of the [man]ual pages, but gives details about it, how to use it, etc.

Is this the book you are talking about?

http://www.amazon.com/Linux-Administ.../dp/0470083484