Hello, my name is Robert Rodgers. I was born and raised in a Southern Illinois. I loved growing up in Illinois, especially out in the country where I lived. As a kid I was able to roam the neighborhood with no worries and I rode my bike everywhere I went. Another huge benifit of being in the country is that you can be as loud as you want. When I was 13 years old my dad asked me if I wanted to race lawnmowers, naturally I said, "YES!!!" Over the next few years I built and raced lawnmowers. This taugt me a lot about mechanics and working hard to get what you want. After the first year, I won every race I was in.
During my childhood, I also played a lot of sports. I played baseball, football, basketball, ran track, and wrestled. In highschool my focus was football and school was second. I started college in 2006 at a junior college. I made it a semester and a half before an Army recruiter showed up to my house. Come to find out, my sister wanted an Army beanie from a magazine so she signed my name up to speak with a recruiter, because I was the only one 18 year old at the time. I honestly thought about joining the Army at that point, but my mom was not ok with that decision. She called my brother, who was in the Air Force, and I recieved a phone call shortly after that. He set me up with an Air Force recruiter and here I am 13 years later in the United States Air Force.