Week 1 Essay – Introduction Forum
Good morning class! My name is Erik Murdock and I’m pretty excited to be starting this class with all of you!

I’m currently in the final stages of earning my BS degree in Space Studies (with a minor in Intelligence Studies), and this class is getting me one big step closer to a dream of mine, that is to earn a commissioning in the US Air Force. This course and indeed, this degree would be a huge help, as one of the commissioning paths I’ll be applying for is Space Operations. I’ve been in the Air Force since 2004, and have loved it (more or less) every day since my oath of enlistment.

While I originally signed up to be an Arabic Linguist, the greatest thing to ever happen to me in my career was that I failed out of that line of work and was selected for my current career. My current career entails signals analysis of a communications nature, and has taken me all around the world doing a bunch of really fun and exciting missions. I’ve deployed to Iraq and had a blast working a Counterintelligence/Human Intelligence mission, I’ve worked both space and cyberspace fields, and loved it all. Since last year I’ve working to share this passion and experience with other students, as I’m an instructor for my career’s capstone course in Pensacola, Florida. I was recently moved to be Course Supervisor, so needless to say, work is very demanding and busy!

During the times that I’m not early to work and late to home, I’m a very proud single father of two amazing (-ly tiring) boys, ages 6 and 2. They are a handful and try my patience more than I’d care to admit, but those moments are outweighed by the joy they bring in the little periods in between.

I look forward to our discussing Space Policy with each of you, and I hope we all have a great time!