Good afternoon everyone, new to all of this, but a die hard Star Wars fan and bounty hunter fan since I was a kid. I'm Wayne, been a nurse for 18 going on 19 years, was watching some of the behind the scenes from Mandolorian on Disney+ last night and my mouth about dropped open when they called the 501st and you guys from the So. Cal area stood in as extras... my heart dropped when I found out there's an Inland Empire Squad and right on it I was. Been talking to a few of the guys who actually were in that Mandolorian episode and I'm just giddy like I'm 10 years old again at even just the thought of I could build my own armor and look like I walked off a set and be a part of this kind of thing. SO EXCITED about this. Anyhow, a little bit about me, I grew up in so cal, literally 5 blocks from disneyland, lived here all my life, spent 3 years in the US Army stationed first in an OSUT unit for basic training and AIT at Fort Sill Oklahoma (am a 13B artilleryman by training), then permanent duty at Fort Bliss in El Paso Texas for the remainder of my enlistment. I got out of the Army and wanted to be a police officer, sought my education and graduated in 2000 with my first AS degree in criminal justice. Took the EMT course over that summer and fell in love with the medical field. 2 years later found me in the LVN/LPN program, started working after graduation as a registry nurse in the acute hospitals taking assignments first in a gero-psych unit as a med nurse, then one night got asked if I had any ER experience by the shift sup, got sent to ED to assist the two RN's there. From that point I got pushed into ICU to take 2 patients, med/surg and tele units and of course ER. Did that for four years, then in 2007 we had a shift in nursing to RN only. Went through Cancer with my dad in 2009 which put my RN off a bit, then finally returned to school in 2013 to pursue my RN licensing. In 2017 I graduated the RN program, quickly started my bachelors degree and finished it last year in June, took a year off and am now pursuing my Masters in nursing education which will last a year and a half.
I have, since I was a kid, always wanted to be a storm trooper, and even one year a home-made Boba Fett costume had me out trick or treating. This is super cool that this even exists and even more cool that there's a squad right here where I live, which I was totally unaware of. The guys on the Inland Empire said this might be the best for the first run costume to get started. I'm super stoked to get going on this... So giddy right now it's not even funny that I MAY even be just ABLE to do this, let alone it's something that I actually can do... yay!!!
-Wayne.