Bill Younger Sr. is South Side Chicago, born and bred. Following family tradition, he joined the Marine Corps, serving eight years (with two combat tours). His intention to make a career of the military was cut short by a serious spinal injury that resulted in his discharge (with a small medical pension).
He came home, his notoriety affording him great success with the ladies, and began working for the family construction business, aided by a relatively elaborate back brace. In the decade that followed, he married and had five children, four girls and, finally, his only boy and namesake, Bill Jr.
Life went relatively smoothly, and the Younger family lived in the relative comfort a working class life provided, until the Thunder attacked. After the coastal cities were attacked, and the aliens' link to the water became obvious. Conventional wisdom indicated that Chicago, positioned on one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world, might also be a target. As a result, Bill Sr. moved his family up to his hunting cabin in north central Wisconsin, hoping that moving away from a large population center would protect his family from alien attack.
Having been brought north when he was two, Wisconsin is the only home Bill Jr. has ever known. His father trained him to shoot and hunt when he was eight, and by the time he was thirteen, Bill Jr. was precociously intelligent (being halfway through his mother's home school curriculum: developed by the nearby university at Steven's Point). He particularly excelled at the sciences, taking particular enjoyment from his introductory mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering classes (Junior level classes in the mid 21st century). He was also prodigiously large (standing nearly six feet tall and a hundred and seventy pounds).
Bill Sr. is a local in the local militia/guard infrastructure, and after successfully conducting classes in rudimentary combat readiness and tactics for the guard, began instructing a class of children his son's age in hopes that the skills and discipline would be that much more developed by the time they reached adulthood. He emphasized to the children the need for physical excellence and mental clarity, as well as the duty for those with the skill and ability to defend their community, locally, nationally, and globally to do so.
Most of the children, being children, did not take many of the more esoteric lessons seriously (though they enjoyed shooting). Bill Jr. found this immensely frustrating, and found himself in the role of motivator and director to his fellow "recruits". His sense of duty weighted heavily on his mind as he approached his thirteenth birthday. He wanted to be of some help, but did not want to wait until he turned eighteen to do so. Thoughts of the PDF program churned in his stomach. Most likely nothing would happen, but there was the slim chance that he would develop abilities to help the fight against the Thunder (and a slim chance that he would die or be driven insane). After discussing it with his family, his mother packed him a lunch, his father drove him to Steven's Point, and he boarded a train bound for Chicago.
