| All about Chad Well if you want to know something about me you've come to the right place. Here's the basic breakdown: FULL NAME: Chad Michael Polenz DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: September 9, 1976 in Schenectady, New York HEIGHT: 5 feet, 10 inches WEIGHT: 185 pounds HAIR COLOR: Black EYE COLOR: Hazel OCCUPATION: Third Class Fire Controlman Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy (active duty). Currently serving aboard the USS WASP (LHD-1) NATO SeaSparrow Missile technician and operator CURRENT PLACE OF RESIDENCE: Norfolk, Virginia PERMANENT PLACE OF RESIDENCE: Schenectady, New York MARTIAL STATUS: Single |
| If you don't know me from Adam I'm not going to fill you in on all the mundane details of my every waking hour. But to bring you up to speed I was born and raised in Schenectady. I had a pretty good childhood although I only got average grades in school. In high school I developed an interest in comic books and thought I had the talent to become a professional comic book artist. I graduated Schenectady High School in 1994 and that fall I went to Hudson Valley Community College where I took some basic liberal arts and illustration courses. In the fall of 1995 I transferred to Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester where I took some advanced art classes but didn't do very well academically. I only lasted one semester there. In the fall of 1996 I went to SUNY Morrisville and changed my major to journalism. I did really well there and got my degree in December of 1997. After graduation I set off into the "real world" where over the next three years or so I would hold various jobs. The best of which was a full time newspaper reporter's job at a small daily in Gloversville. It didn't pay much but it was work and it was fun while it lasted. I moved out of my parents house for the first time in late 1999 and got an apartment with my two friends. By then I had lost the reporter's job but landed a part-time gig as a sportswriter and a photographer for a weekly sports paper in Albany about all the local college and pro teams. Unfortunately, the paper went out of business and I was underemployed for a while working part time at temp agencies and a super market. I ran out of money in early 2001 so I had to move back home. At that time I thought about becoming a firefighter and when I saw an ad in the classifieds that said firefighters were needed and will pay to train I called it and it turned out to be jobs in the Navy. I met with a recruiter and that's when my Navy career was born. I scored surprisingly well on the entrance exam and they encouraged me to go for a more high-tech job than firefighting and offered me a HUGE cash bonus as an incentive. I couldn't say no to that. So on April 30, 2001 I was flown to Chicago and started boot camp that night. Since then I've been through three major schools: tech core; FC "A" school (both in Great Lakes, IL) and "C" school for my missile system (in Virginia Beach). In late October of 2002 I was sent to my first ship, the USS WASP (LHD-1) out of Norfolk and that's where I'm going to be until 2007 (although there is the possibilty I could transfer somewhere else sooner depending on certain circumstances). Continue on to Frequently Asked Questions about me or Chad'z 30 Questions or Back to main page |
| A BRIEF HISTORY OF MY LIFE, or: How I Got To Where I Am Now |