WEST PORTSMOUTH Driving on southern Ohio backroads along the land his family used to own, Archie Spradlin jokes that he s 10% of everything.
The 52-year-old was born in Bangkok, Thailand, as a U.S. citizen on the Air Force base where his father was stationed and met Spradlin s mother during the Vietnam War. He attended kindergarten in Honolulu before his grandmother got sick and his family moved back to the area near the Ohio River where his father grew up. Part of me is still down here, Spradlin said with a smile.
It s been 40 years since he lived in West Portsmouth, between first and sixth grade before the Spradlin family permanently relocated to Hawaii, but the longtime former State Highway patrol sergeant said he can identify both with the folks here in rural Ohio and with the Pacific islanders.