This is my story how a poor kid from the Ozarks, who ill equipped, educationally or financially, attended Missouri School of Mines (MSM) and became a mining engineer. A career which got me out of the Ozarks and toke me to over 30 countries. This journey covers our lives during the Great Depression; the home front during WWII; the returning of thousands of battle-hardened veterans to blend onto college campuses with naïve kids just out of high school and the stories generated; my early experiences in the underground mines of Washington, Idaho and Colorado. Then being drafted in the army infantry but ending up in the Corp of Engineers (COE) during the Korean War and how that quirk of events ended up with the COE sponsoring my returning to MSM to get an MS degree in mining: This led to being hired by St. Joseph Lead Co. for their new mining research department. I was involved in some very successful research developments in mining techniques, which found world-wide interest and allowed me to succeed, not only within St. Joe, but also with a world-wide reputation. During my 22 years with St. Joe, I was not only successful in rising through their ranks but was also involved with building a modern town and three, mining-milling complexes in the wilderness of the Clark National Forest of the Missouri Ozarks, at a time just before the eco-activists were stopping all mining's progress. Yet, the overall area has not been harmed one bit in 50-plus years. I think that you will find that traveling with me (and my Guardian Angel) through my career as a mining engineer will be interesting and at times, exciting (if not downright scary). I'll take you many places in the United States, as well as many other countries. To name a couple of adventures: there was the snow avalanche where we were perched on the side of Battle Mountain, CO, or the hike across Death Valley one August night. These are just two of the places and stories that you may find interesting.