Jeff Boone

Name: Jeff Boone

Age: 45

Family: Wife, JoAnn; son, Roy; daughters, Corina, Sarah and Ashley

City of residence: Capay

Occupation: Attorney

Where do you get your news? CNBC and Bloomberg

Hobbies, interests: For relaxation, I enjoy hunting, fishing and spending time in the outdoors. I enjoy reading, too. Currently, I am working my way through the 19th century Russian writers. The book I am reading now is "Dead Souls," by Nikolai Gogol.

Tell us about a life-changing experience: I graduated from Corning High School in 1984. One month later, I reported to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where I did my undergraduate studies. So, that was something of a culture shock, but it was a good experience. One of the things I enjoyed most about being in the military was traveling and meeting people from all over the country and the world. While I was in the service I lived in New York, Georgia, and Alaska and was able to travel throughout Western Europe, Ukraine, Japan and Peru. It was an exciting time.

What is something unique about you? I love to travel, which in itself is not necessarily unique. However, I like to explore the more remote areas of the world and it doesn't matter where it is or what the conditions are like, if I am some place that is off the beaten track, I have a good time. For example, I spent a month on a glacier in Alaska, it was fun. I dined on roasted guinea pig and shall we say, other exotic foods, in the Andes in Peru, I enjoyed that. I spent the night in a rain storm in Haleakala Crater in Maui with nothing but a couple garbage bags for a shelter - aside from a minor case of hypothermia that was a good time too.

If you were going to donate time/money locally, where would it go towards? I am a member of the local Rotary Club, so I would donate time and money to one of the local service projects that they support.

Closest you've been to a famous person: In the mess hall at West Point I had lunch at the table next to President Reagan.

Whom do you most admire and why? There are a lot of people that I admire, family members, teachers and coaches, officers that I served under in the Army, but the person I most admire is my mother. Somehow, she was able to work full-time, actually far more than full-time, and run her own business and still take care of her family. Now that I have a family of my own, I am amazed at how she managed that.

What brought you/family to this area? My great grandparents moved to Capay in the early 1900's to farm and we have been here from that time forward. My family lives in the area and my wife's family also lives in area, so this is home.

What's your guilty pleasure? Ben and Jerry's Oreo Mint ice cream.

Favorite places to go in the area? The Yolla Bolly Wilderness Area, somewhere up there is a monster buck waiting for me. I just have to find him. I have been looking for the last 19 years so I can tell you a lot of places where he is not.

What is the best advice you have ever received? My first winter in Alaska I was going to walk to the motor pool and check on my soldiers. It was about 20 degrees below zero and my platoon sergeant told me, "Lieutenant you'd better wear your watch cap." It turns out that was excellent advice because by the time I was half way to the motor pool my ears had started to freeze and by the time I made it to the motor pool I had frost bite. Sergeant Tarrant was full of helpful advice.

Most embarrassing moment: At Fort Wainwright in Alaska there is a ski slope for military personnel. The ski slope can be seen from almost anywhere on post. Every year it would begin snowing in late September and those of us who were skiers would start eyeing the slope to see if there was enough snow to make the first run of the season. My last year in Alaska, the post had a new commanding general and he had declared the ski slope off limits until it officially opened. I decided then that my platoon was going to poach the slope, and get the first tracks of the season, anyway. I got my platoon together and we developed a foolproof plan to get the first tracks and escape before we were discovered. We used half of our snow machines to tow the platoon up some back roads, to the top of the slope. The other half of the snow machines were waiting at the bottom of the slope ready to spirit off my soldiers as soon as they reached the end of the run. At the appointed time, my platoon slipped out of the trees at the top of the slope and bombed the run in full arctic camouflage. I made it to the bottom of the slope and turned around to watch the last of my soldiers come off the mountain and that is when disaster struck. One of the civilians in charge of the slope came running out of the ski shack and yelled at one of my soldiers "What unit are you from?" The soldier, caught up in the excitement of getting the first tracks of the year, let out a whoop and yelled "Bravo Company, 5/9 Infantry!" And that is how I ended up on the carpet in front of my battalion commander, who received an irate phone call from the commanding general.

Contact Cindy Monroe at 824-5464 or cmonroe@tcnpress.com.