I
joined the 501st back in 1999 when they only had a simple
but fun website on geocities.com. For those of you too young
to remember, geocities was an free webhost. I got interested
in finding my own Stormtrooper armor when I saw the amazing
fan film "Troops". It was and still is a great take
on the show "COPS" but takes place in the Star Wars
universe.
I always loved Star Wars but after seeing that I had to find
a way to get some Stormtrooper armor of my own. It's been
forever since i had my armor. I had a lot of amazing times
in it, and I met a lot of awesome friends too, including some
Star Wars celebrities. I also attended a visits at Childrens
Hospital in Pittsburgh and those visits are still is some
of my most memorable moments in the 501st.
I was a member first of the 501ST Eastern Squad, which was
an offshoot of the Empire City Garrison. For years I was the
webmaster for the site and saw the Eastern Squad grow into
Garrison Carida. I even made Trooper of the Month and I'm
still very proud of that and happy to have contributed well
enough that people thought I should recieve that recognition.
I really appreciate that!
Eventually I became a member of the New England Garrison and
then the Carolina Garrison. Yeah, I've moved around quite
a bit. I had an absolute blast in my Trooper armor and have
plenty of photos to share here. They are organized by year
and/or event with a few random ones tossed in. Some aren't
the best quality and are rather small but that's due to the
camera I was using at the time and the need to scan photos.
I'm going old school here and reusing the old images and thumbnails
for them from my original Trooper site I had years ago for
ease and also for nostalgia.
I sold my Trooper armor in 2005 to help fund getting married
and it was completely and totally worth it. I had planned
on eventually trying to buy back the armor but the person
I sold it to sadly had a fire and the armor was to be no more.
I was always rather tall for a Stormtrooper anyway, and would
often feel awkward standing next to other Troopers and especially
Darth Vaders that were the same height or shorter than me.
Also due to my height the armor had some signifigant gaps
between the white armor parts which looked a bit off.
Although I am currently inactive in the 501st I am working
to build an accurate Darth Vader based on his outfit from
ANH. I am very much looking forward to becoming active again.
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: I Joined the 501st. |
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Pittsburgh
Comicon 2000 April 28-30, 2000
Pittsburgh Expomart Monroeville, PA. |
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Pittsbugh
Comicon 2001 April 27-29, 2001
Pittsburgh Expomart Monroeville, PA |
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| Attack
of the Clones Opening May 16, 2002 |
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The
BIG E September 28th 2002
West Springfield, MA |
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Slanted
Fedora:Shock & Awe Sci-Fi Road Show June 29th 2003
Sheraton Bradley Hotel Windsor Locks, CT |
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Hooray
for Hollywood September 27th 2003
Mohegan Sun Casino - Uncasville, CT |
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ConnectiCon
2004 July 16-18, 2004
University of Hartford - West Hartford, CT |
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| Revenge
of the Sith Opening- May 19, 2005 |
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| Adventure
Con June 18-19, 2005 |
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