"Larger Than Life." Those are the first words usually used to describe Joseph "Easy" Ryder, a proud product of both Scorpia and the Colonial Marine Corps. Born on Scorpia during the economic recession that followed the mustering out of a large number of the Colonial Military after the First Cylon War, a mustering that included both Joe's parents. Deeply religious people, they insisted that all was the will of the Gods, and set about making the best life they could for their family. Both took what jobs they could find, typically factory work, warehouse work, or in absence of either, no work at all. The oldest of four children, Joe left school early to work and help support the family. He was hired as a short-order cook, a position that inspired in him a long-term love of good food, usually as fried as it could stand. He looked to be just another Scorpian left-over when a Marine recruiter noticed him in a pick-up Pyramid game behind the restaurant where Joe worked. Impressed by his large stature, the recruiter encouraged him to enlist in the CMC, an offer Joe immediately jumped at.
The next eight years were some of the happiest of Joe's life. The recessions had brought unrest, and Joe's company was often being shipped around to help preserve the peace, most often on Sagitarron. After one fight had gone particularly sour, Joe received a commendation for carrying a wounded Marine four miles through a combat zone to a pickup. During this time he completed his GED through the Corps, and was trained as a combat medic, which inspired in him an interest in combat medicine. After his third tour of duty ended, two as infantry and one as a medic, Joe requested aid in attending college, with an interest in going on to Medical School. With a promise of reinlisting after he became a Doctor, Joe secured the needed financial aid, and left the corps to study medicine.
For a guy who'd left school as kid, the world of College and Medical school was a magical one. Though not the smartest of his colleagues, his large personality and contagious laugh assured that he was a big man on campus, well known and well liked, and able to get academic help when he needed it. He was cheered when he graduated with his MD, his parents weeping with pride, and he immediately enlisted with the Colonial Fleet as a Trauma Surgeon, ensuring that he would be helping his former brothers in the corps when they needed him most.
Highly competent in his work, Joe rose in the ranks over the years, his large personality ensuring that he had many friends around him in the fleet to help shepherd his career. Admired by fellow officers and trusted by his patients, Joe was an almost mythical figure in the Fleet, highly sought after by Commanding officers. Just before Warday, one Admiral in particular took the idea into his head that in peacetime, Joe's large personality would make him even more effective as a recruiter than as a doctor, and occasionally Joe would be sent to give talks to civilians in hopes of getting them to join up. This was what had Joe speaking to an auditorium full of kids on Tauron when the Cylons attacked. In the initial chaos, Joe was just as lost and confused as everybody else. However, over time, he managed to pull together a small band of civillians, a group of 32 men, women, and children, and help keep them safe in an old fallout shelter that had been constructed during the first Cylon war. Holding them together through sheer force of will, Joe used everything he knew to help them, including several times fighting off human scavengers.
After nearly a year had passed, several of his group's foragers reported seeing Colonial Military birds in the sky. Deciding that rescue had finally come, Joe loaded most of his small group together into a bus they had salvaged from the school, and started off to meet the military at their base of operations. They didn't know what kind of reception they would receive, but whatever came, it would be good to be back amongst the fleet.
