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WELCOME TO RAY HIGHERS' MOST RECENTLY UPDATED HOME WEB PAGES PAGE
ONE (1) PERSONAL INFO So who wants to know about me? Hello, and welcome to my eighth attempt at my home page! Construction has restarted! Anyway, I want to tell you a little about myself. My name is Raymond ("Ray") I live in Virginia Beach, VA (Originally from Lebanon, TN, but call Cookeville, TN, my Home of Record for the U.S. Navy) because that's where my father, R.L., Jr., lives. My hobbies and interests are as follows: I'm a humongous (in case the above pictures didn't give you any indications that I was) "GRAND FUNK RAILROAD" fanatic and member of both GFR Internet Fan Clubs "Roadkill" and "Cyberfunk"; I had some guitar lessons on my left-handed 12-String Sunburst Ovation guitar; I've gone as far as I could by myself, and I tried the Virginia Beach Music Academy and Mark Sparacello for awhile but ran out of time to do it with the divorce and everything! I also enjoy woodworking (built my own shed, 8-foot wide by 8-foot tall by 16-foot long, summer of 1998 in my backyard) and cutting/splitting wood (the old fashioned way, with my trusty chain saw then wedges, sledgehammer, and/or maul). I enjoy motorcycling when I get my GL-500 Silver Wing running again (I've got to exchange engines with my "parts" bike); someday that project will be finished, but it's going to be a lot of work, so I just might just get a Gold Wing instead! LOL! Well, you already know that my name is Ray Highers; hence, my E-Mail Address, @ HOME, is RAYHIGHERS@aol.com; I try to keep it simple in order for people to find me and can E-Mail me. My birthday is 10 February 1956, so you can do the math and see how old I am; that makes my Zodiac sign an Aquarius, the Water Bearer. Click the following link (Ray Highers) to see a Navy picture of me; here's my Class of 1974 Senior Picture. I survived the divorce from Linda, which
finally became final in May 2003. I
then married to Susan, Friday, June 13, 2003!!! My two local children, Amanda
(age 19), Bill (age 17); Raymond
(age 24) lives in My home has a "zoo" which
consists of five cats (Zoe, Kakitty, Marley Bobbins, Kumaal, and Songa who
recently had six new kittens), and three dogs (Treasure, golden
retriever "ex"-seeing-eye dog, and two I'm in the United
States Navy (active duty), currently stationed on the USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN-73), which
is currently in the Northrop Grumman Newport News
shipyard until December 2005. She is
adding two MK 31 Mod 3 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) Guided Missile Weapon
Systems (GMWS), losing one of the four MK 15 Mod 14 Phalanx Close-In Weapon
Systems (CIWS) (Mount 22), hence, three MK 15 Mod 13 Phalanx CIWS (Mounts 21,
23, and 24), losing one of the three MK 57 Mod 3 North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) Seasparrow Surface Missile System (NSSMS) (NATO 3), hence
two MK 57 Mod 3 NSSMS (NATO 1 and NATO 2), and MK 23 Mod 7 Target Acquisition
System (TAS). I transferred from the Afloat Training Group (ATG) Atlantic (ATGL), Combat System Department (N81), and Air Warfare (AW) Division (N812) in January 2005. I did three (3) years of “shore duty” while being either away at sea or away from homeport for 141 days, of which I was able to take four (4) months off of my PRD on the GW. I've been in the Navy for a little over 30 years (total Federal service) [Pay Entry Base Date (PEBD) is 1975 April 08] and a little over 25 years active duty [Active Duty Service Date (ADSD) is 1980 March 14]. I had broken active duty service from 1981 to 1986, but I was in the Selected Naval Reserves from April 1982 to April 1986; that's when I came back on active duty and have been ever since! Also another great event in my life finally occurred in May 2002--I was finally selected for Fire Controlman "Senior Chief" Petty Officer (FCCS) after being a "Chief" (FCC) for almost 14 years. I was "Number 1 out of 33" who were selected for advancement to FCCS; I started getting paid for "Senior Chief" on 16 July 2002!!! What's the difference, you ask? The "Senior Chief" collar or hat device has a "star" above the fouled USN anchor. I transferred from my last duty station, USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN-69), in January 2002; I had been stationed there since January 2000. We left for the 2000 Millennium Cruise in February 2000 and came back in August 2000. It is the #2 Nimitz-class carrier, homeported out of Norfolk, VA, but it started going through an extensive Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH) (her two nuclear reactors will be removed and refueled) over at Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company (a part of Northrop Grumman now) in May 2001. It will have her three Close-In Weapon Systems (CIWS) removed and two Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) systems installed. Also her three NATO Seasparrow Surface Missile Systems (NSSMS) will be upgraded with the installation of the two Rearchitectured NSSMS (RNSSMS) systems. I am one of many members of the GRAND FUNK RAILROAD fan clubs "Roadkill" and "Cyberfunk". I
saw recently in August 2001 in Louisville, KY and February 2002 in Orlando,
FL the new line-up of GFR (Don Brewer, original drummer, Mel Schacher,
original bass, Max Carl, previously of .38 Special, on vocals and some
guitar, Bruce Kulick, previously of KISS, on lead guitar, and Tim Cashion,
previously of Bob Seeger and Robert Palmer, on keyboards. Why the new line-up
minus Mark Farner? Well, he decided
that he wanted to continue his solo career after his 1996-1998 GFR tours.
Click on the above links to find out more about GFR and the Mark Farner Band (MFB). I just hope one
day that they can come to the I got my original computer in January 1997 after getting back from a six-month deployment and transferring off of the USS ENTERPRISE (CVN-65) in December 1996; she was commissioned in 1961, when I was in the first grade, as the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and the one of its own class (ENTERPRISE-class) and is still going strong. Here's a cool link to the "Carrier With Class", the Big "E". Well, I guess that's enough for now. I hope I ain't bored ya to death! I'm trying to get better at this Microsoft FrontPage Express and will be improving and adding more in the future. So stand by; more is on the way!!! You can E-Mail me at the following links: @ HOME RAYHIGHERS@aol.com and/or/both @ WORK HighersRL@atgl.spear.navy.mil to let me know what you think about my home page.
|RAYHIGHERS' Original Home Web Page| With links to all other pages|RAYHIGHERS' Home Web Page 1 of 4| Personal Info about me|RAYHIGHERS' Home Web Page 2 of 4| Dedicated to Grand Funk Railroad Pictures and Info|RAYHIGHERS' Home Web Page 3 of 4| Dedicated to Mark Farner 1999 Solo Tour|RAYHIGHERS' Home
Web Page 4 of 4| Dedicated to the
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