Character Profile: Joe Rock (Patreon)

Joseph “Joe” Rock was born in 1982 in Spokane, Washington. When Joe was 12 years old, his father got a job in Boise and the family moved there. Joe found himself liking Boise a lot and eagerly took to his new home, graduating from Capitol High School in the year 2000. 

After years of school and a desire to see the outside world, Joe enlisted in the Army as a Combat Engineer. He thought that learning about explosives would be cool and he could use Combat Engineer experience to get a job in construction if necessary. He had no real long-term plans beyond that. He was in the Army when the terrorist attacks on 9-11 happened.

After 3 years in Active Duty, Joe left to return to Boise but stayed in the Reserves. He planned to go to Boise State University on the GI Bill and get on with life, but shortly after arriving at the 213th Engineering Battalion in Boise, the unit was mobilized for Iraq.

Joe was an average student in school and has ordinary retail work experience. He likes sports but excels at none of them, and his favorite team is the Seattle Seahawks, since he considers them his “home team”. He actually prefers baseball but doesn’t mention this much. 

Immediately upon joining the 213th Battalion, Joe tries flirting with a TAMMS clerk there, Juni Okuda, who initially finds him uninteresting but eventually warms to him.