User:Mccrary357

Early life
Born "Mark Lawrence Kinney" in Ft. Myers, FL to Doug Joseph Kinney (19) & Barbara Jean Hager Kinney (18) at Lee Memorial Hospital. Doug and Barbara we having marital issues so Barbara was living with her mother, Natalie Hager. Doug and Barbara did live together a few times with Mark in various cities like; Atlanta, GA, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL and of course Ft. Myers, FL. They did finally divorce when Mark was 2 years old. When Mark was 4, Barbara met James Michael "Mike" McCrary at a bible study. They were married soon thereafter on November 15, 1975. They all moved into a duplex owned by Mike’s mother at 2710 Central Avenue in Ft. Myers, FL. Mark attended Edison Park Elementary School for K-3. In 1980, Mike and Barbara had a little girl named Elizabeth Marie McCrary. Then, just before Mark’s 10th birthday, Mark’s family moved to Jacksonville, FL so that his step-father could finish his undergraduate degree with trinity Baptist College and Luther Rice Seminary. They lived in many places, and in turn Mark attended many schools (Trinity Christian (4th), Bayview Elementary (5th), Mary Mecloud Bethune(6th), Carter G. Woodson(6th), Landon Jr. high(7th), Dupont Jr. high (8th) and Wolfson High School (9th, 10th & 11th). Mark then moved in with his biological father, Doug Kinney in Cape Coral where he attended Cape Coral High (11th) and Mariner high School (12th).

Life in the United States Navy
After graduating high school in May of 1989, Mark decided to join the Navy with his cousin Allen under the "Buddy Program". This would have put them in the same boot camp and sent them to Radioman (RM) school together in San Diego. This didn't happen due to Allen's current girlfriend, soon to be wife, making it clear that she wasn't happy about being joined at the hip with Mark for the next 4 years. Mark decided to go to boot camp in Orlando, FL and then attend Boatswain's Mate (BM) school. After 8 weeks in boot camp and another month in A-School, he headed off to his first duty station the USS John Hancock (DD-981). The ship was based out of Mayport, FL but was going through a retrofitting at dry docks in Pascagoula, MS. It didn't take Mark long to realize that he wanted to live off of the ship. So, he got an apartment with a couple shipmates. He ended up meeting Belinda Robles who lived with her sister downstairs. They married soon after in Victoria, TX, but it only lasted a few months and they were divorced. It took 2 long years for Belinda to sign the divorce papers, but it was finalized in 1992. Mark's ship returned to Mayport which was right next to Jacksonville where his mother lived. He was involved in joint task force drug operations in the Caribbean. With his ship, he also visited; Charleston, Cuba, Jamaica, Spain, Crete, Israel, Egypt and Bahrain. The ship was involved in Operation Desert Storm and Gulf War I.