I'm James Ruggles. Beaumont, California has been home since 2005, minus the eight years the Army took me to Germany. It's a good base, but I'm open to wherever the right opportunity is, and I'd go back to Germany or Spain in a heartbeat.

I enlisted in 2010 as a 19K tank crewman, for school, for my country, and to make my mom proud. Most of my time was at Hohenfels as OPFOR, the opposing force that trains units before they deploy. I played the enemy for American, British, French, Romanian, Czech, and Nepalese soldiers, among others. I stayed in Germany after my contract to run the post theater, because when you're already in Europe, you travel.

Back home I went after the thing I'd always liked: figuring out how systems work and how they break. I'm finishing a B.S. in Information Systems & Technology at Cal State San Bernardino, cybersecurity concentration, graduating December 2026. The homelab started with a Raspberry Pi running Pi-hole and grew into the rack in my room. I still break things regularly. That's the point.

I work at the Veterans Success Center on campus and lead the student veteran organization. I wasted benefits early on because I didn't ask for help, so showing another veteran a benefit they didn't know they had is the best part of my week.

Outside of that: the gym four days a week, camping, brewing mead, fixing whatever the house throws at me, and a dog named Fifi. If you take one thing from this site, let it be that I'll learn whatever the job needs.