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.

1999 : I Joined the 501st.
       
         
Pittsburgh Comicon 2000 April 28-30, 2000
Pittsburgh Expomart Monroeville, PA.
   
         
Pittsbugh Comicon 2001 April 27-29, 2001
Pittsburgh Expomart Monroeville, PA
 
 
Attack of the Clones Opening May 16, 2002
     
         
The BIG E September 28th 2002
West Springfield, MA
       
         
Slanted Fedora:Shock & Awe Sci-Fi Road Show June 29th 2003
Sheraton Bradley Hotel Windsor Locks, CT
 
Hooray for Hollywood September 27th 2003
Mohegan Sun Casino - Uncasville, CT
 
ConnectiCon 2004 July 16-18, 2004
University of Hartford - West Hartford, CT
   
 
Revenge of the Sith Opening- May 19, 2005
     
 
Adventure Con June 18-19, 2005