Rick Hoppe was born to a normal middle-class family in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains, west of St. Louis, Missouri. He joined the US Army as an infantryman in 1975 and transferred to Military Intelligence as a counterintelligence agent in 1982. He worked in the counterintelligence field from 1982 to 2015, with the Army, various contractors, Multi-National Force-Iraq, US Forces-Afghanistan, and Defense Intelligence Agency. In 2015 he moved home to Texas and worked as an independent consultant until 2020, when he put work on hold to provide full-time care for his wife until her passing in January 2021. In May 2021 he began working as a remote marketing consultant for a government contractor firm. Along the way, he has lived a remarkable life, accepted that he was born a warrior, and is proud of his service. He is an up-and-coming artist, selected as a Texas Distinguished Artist Veteran in 2020 and 2021, and regularly attends and exhibits in art shows throughout Texas. He is currently finding out what the second part of his life looks like and anticipating the discovery of who Rick 2.0 will be.