Steve Walden
My place on the web
Who Am I
My Name is Steve Walden. I am married with 2 Sons. Instead of given you my age and having to update the info every year, I will just tell you that I was born in June 1969.
I was born and raised in Chattanooga, TN. I graduated from Red Bank High School in 1988. After graduations I went to college for a short time but found that I was just not focused. So, I joined the Army. Actually, I was already in the Reserves and in fact had gone to basic training between my junior and senior years of high school so, going active duty was no big deal. During my 10 years of active duty service, I served with only 3 units and one of those was only a special duty assignment. My first unit was with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). While with the 1001st, I was lucky enough to land a special duty assignment as 1 of only six members of the 101st Airborne Divisions Free-Fall Parachute Team. Man that was a sweet duty. My job was to travel around the country and put on Free-Fall parachute demonstrations. Most people have heard of the Golden Knights, the U.S. Army's Free-Fall parachute demo team but what they don't know is that the 101st team was the first one in the Army and members of the 101st team were the founding members of the Golden Knights. Well, I might have gone the route of the Golden Knights myself if it weren't for the fact that Iraq invaded Kuwait. So, on Sept 11th 1990, the 101st Parachute Team was disbanded and the team was sent back to their combat units to prepare for deployment to Saudi Arabia. Well, we all know how that turned out.
When I got back from Desert Storm, the Parachute Team got back
together but it just wasn't the same for me so, I started looking for the next
challenge. Long story short, I found a Special Forces
recruiting center and spent the last 6 years of my Army Career with
the 5th Special Forces Group(Airborne). While with 5th Group,
I deployed to various places around the world, mostly in the Middle
East and Northeast Africa. Some of the places I have been
include Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Haiti, etc. You can see the map
on my Facebook page for a more complete list.
Anyway, while I was in the Army, I finished College and honed the computer skills that I had been developing since my Mom bought me a Commodore 64 when I was 12 years old (Thanks for that Mom). So, my last year in 5th Group, I worked with the 1st Sgt of GSC (Patrick Daugherty)to create one of the first unit level networks in the Army. Pat was amazing with computers and filled in all the holes I had in my learning. The things that Pat taught me, help me get where I am now. Pat retired from the Army in January '98 and was killed in a car accident February 6th 1998. You are missed brother!. So, next I took what I learned from Pat and the experience I had gained working with him on our units network and put into a resume which I posted my on Mosterjobs.com one Saturday afternoon to my surprise, that Monday I got an e-mail from Microsoft that would start me on the next phase of my life.
In 1998 I got out of the Army and moved to Charlotte, North Carolina to work for Microsoft. I started on the phones taking Windows 98 support calls. I worked my way up and 2 years ago I became a Technical Account Manager with Microsoft. The funny part is that the accounts that I manage are with the United States Army. So, I travel to a lot of bases and when I get there, it always feels like I'm coming home.
I got married in July of 2003. My wife is from Colombia South America (no she is not a mail order bride, I met her while she was working at Microsoft in Charlotte). My wife had a Son and so I have a Step-son, he is a great kid and really smart. Then on August 16th 2004, my wife and I had another son, he is a real handful and a real character. You can see picture so my family on my photo gallery
So, now you have the big overview of my life, if you made it this far in the read, I am sorry it wasn't more exciting. For me, it's been quite a ride and I am really looking forward to seeing what happens next because rain or shine it's always interesting.
About Me Bullets
- Born June 1969
- Married 2 Sons
- 10 years in the Army
- Joined Microsoft in 1998 and I am still there