U.S. soldier Raymond Ramirez has a special connection to Star Wars thanks to Mando'a culture and the characters that represent these sometimes misunderstood warriors, as he discusses their lifestyle and credo in his blog Mando'ade and Their Toys.

Hailing from Saratoga, NY, this war veteran and now full time student remembers when he first found himself literally fighting during his childhood to play the most iconic Mando'a character in the saga -- Boba Fett.

"I was a Star Wars fan from the time I saw the movie on HBO when I was a kid, but it was an argument on a playground in the third grade about who was going to be Boba Fett and who was going to be Chewie that made me realize I was already a die-hard fan," Ramirez recalls. "It escalated into a fist fight and when it was said and done, I got to be Boba for the rest of recess. I know it sounds extreme now all these years later but I was a Mando at heart even then, and there was no way I was going to be a Wookiee."

Ramirez says the wonderment of Star Wars ignited a fire of creativity that never went out. "As a kid Star Wars helped me to use my imagination in ways that I never thought of until I saw the movies," Ramirez says. "It made me want to be creative and I'd dream up all kinds of stuff on my own. The films also got me into reading and drawing. I must have drawn a million X-wing versus TIE fighter battles, and enough Fetts to have a clone army of my own over the years."

The love of the saga also helped him get through some rather rough moments as a soldier serving in unfamiliar territory. "As an adult, Star Wars helped me to get through some tough times in my life," Ramirez continues. "The Expanded Universe has had some amazing stories and some good lessons about life could be learned from some of them. Star Wars was a means of escapism for me while I served in Iraq, and it made situations a lot easier to deal with. Like comparing the weather in the desert to what it must be like on Tatooine, or pretending to be a Mando getting the job done on a sniper mission. I even constructed a lightsaber while I was out there; I have a picture of one of my buddies with it. Star Wars will always be a part of my life."

With his appreciation for Mando'a culture, and his role now as a college student, Ramirez says that blogging was a perfect opportunity to write about his favorite subject in Star Wars. "I named my blog Mando'ade and their toys because my Star Wars alter ego would be Mandalorian and I've been an Army sniper since the summer of '99," Ramirez explains. "I just put the two together. I decided to start blogging after reading some of the other bloggers' stuff for a long time like The Dark Moose, Ryan Kaufman, Karen Traviss, and Jedi Wampa. Some blogs were very funny; others were very thought provoking; and some just made me think of the old days. Everyone has something to say about Star Wars, so one day I decided to share my thoughts too."

Looking through his various entries such as "The Verpine Sniper Weapon System" and "Mandalorians, Me, and the power of Star Wars" it's obvious that Ramirez has Mando'a on the brain, but he also likes to remind readers of more serious topics including insight on life as a real-life soldier.

"I identify with Mandalorians all the way!" Ramirez says. "I'm a soldier so Mandalorians, clone troopers, and any Star Wars soldier would be likely blog topics. I like to write about what life would be like in a GFFA, and what you'd have with you. Sometimes a comment I heard or something I read will trigger a blog entry. For example, when I overheard some younger kids saying not so nice things about women's abilities in combat, I felt the need to address it in my blog. My girlfriend served as a combat medic in Iraq. She fought alongside the men and treated soldiers in the line of fire and was great. I like to put stuff like that out there so that maybe I might change someone's false perception about a certain subject."

Another blog entry -- "Killing, is it inhuman?" -- sparked quite a bit of debate from readers, which was just fine with Ramirez. "'Killing, is it inhuman?' got some pretty interesting comments from all kinds of people," Ramirez says. "I was really interested in seeing what people thought about something that is found a lot in Star Wars -- murder and killing."

"I can relate to the troopers and Mandos," Ramirez continues. "I see them as the most realistic of characters in the Star Wars universe. Just like the soldiers in our real world, they are the ones that have had the biggest impact on the history of their universe. I can appreciate their contribution and I don't see them as cannon fodder like some people might. When I see a trooper get hit, or go down, I think to myself about his squad mates and his brothers that are fighting with him. I can relate to how troopers might have felt toward the Jedi, and I can totally see how Order 66 wouldn't be a big deal to most of them. I've always thought of the Jedi as a little weird."

As Ramirez continues to write in his Star Wars blog, he hopes fans, as well as fellow soldiers and veterans visiting online, make a point to share their own memories of fandom. "I'd like it to be a place where other soldiers that visit Star Wars Blogs can come to leave comments, talk about their Star Wars stories here in the States or overseas and anyone else who wants to talk about Mandalorians and soldiers," Ramirez says. "Hopefully, I get to make a few people laugh or reminisce about bounty hunting their little brothers or sisters, or having a lightsaber battle in the living room and knocking over one of their mother's vases."

Ramirez finds that his writing is improving as he writes more and more entries. "I was offered the chance to become a tutor for English 101 at school," Ramirez says. "It was a huge compliment but I wanted to fine tune my writing skill before I went ahead to tutor others. Blogging has definitely helped with that just because it's another outlet to use writing as a tool to communicate ideas in creative ways. And it has given me access to other writers that are immensely talented and are successful in the profession, and I'm able to read their thoughts almost daily. Reading is just as important if you want to improve your writing. There are some awesome thoughts floating around on these blogs."

Adds Ramirez, "Plus these blogs are just plain, old fun! You can swap ideas and thoughts, and meet people that are into the same type of Star Wars creativity you are into -- costume designers, armor builders, collectors, artists, painters, writers."

One type of fan that Ramirez is happy to accommodate in his blog are those people teaching themselves the Mando'a tongue spoken by bounty hunters and soldiers alike. "I do use a lot of Mando'a words in my blogs," Ramirez says. "Most of the time I add the translation to help people learn the language. I planned on doing one but I'd thought I'd wait a bit and let Mando'a spread some more before I do an entire entry in Mando'a. I was one of author Karen Traviss' beta testers for the language so I got a little head start."

Ramirez also helped Traviss as a military ballistics expert as she was writing about weaponry in her novel Triple Zero. He even took his expertise a step further by making a 3-D model of the Verpine rifle, as well as Kal Skirata's helmet.

"Karen Traviss is an exceptional person, and a true friend," Ramirez smiles. "I honestly didn't help her all that much really, her imagination cooked up a doozy of a rifle on her own. I just took what she had already thought of and tweaked one or two features like the barrel length and the stock characteristics to make it even more functional than it already was. I shared with her my knowledge of ballistics, sniping, and some terminology and she did an outstanding job at applying it to the action of the story. I'm sure that if there are any shooters out there that read Triple Zero they'd appreciate the detail in the tagging scene. It was tremendous fun and an honor to have helped with that -- especially as a fan!"

"I was so impressed with Kal Skirata and the concept behind the capabilities of the Verpine rifle, that I decided to bring part of her imagination to real life," Ramirez continues. "I could see what Kal's helmet looked like in my head, so I went to bringing it to life. I got inspiration for the Verpine from different real world rifles like the British L96, the M24, and the M40A4 and put the rest together from details in the book. It was a lot of fun and I was happy she liked it. I just finished one for myself. It's going to look great with the Mandalorian armor I'm working on. Since knowing Karen, she has sparked a creativity in me I haven't seen since I was a kid. It's been great."

Author Karen Traviss was equally enamoured with Ramirez. "I met Ray when he wrote to Star Wars Insider about one of my short stories," Traviss says. "We hit it off right away and we've been good buddies ever since. When it came to writing Triple Zero I needed very technical first-hand accounts from a sniper, because it's such a highly specialized role, and Ray kindly helped me out as tech adviser. Like all the military stuff, I want it to read so authentically that someone who's actually done the job can nod and say, 'Yes, that's exactly how it is.'"

"Ray's a phenomenally gifted model-maker and artist, too," Traviss continues. "Holding the replica Verp from the book was a wonderful experience and added a new dimension for me as a writer. He's been such a good friend to me that his gaming persona gets a cameo role in Bloodlines, so readers can have fun spotting which Mando is named for Ray. I'm looking forward to Celebration IV, when we both might make the con in armor!"

While speaking the language in his blog and building Mando'a armor and weapon props gives Ramirez a closer connection to the Star Wars warriors, he finds that their background as soldiers rings close to home with his own life as a vet from the Iraqi War.

"Being a soldier does make me appreciate and respect Mandos even more," Ramirez says. "Not only because they are awesome disciplined soldiers but because they are mercenaries too. I know how dangerous a mercenary can be because we had to fight against guys like that -- soldiers who aren't tied to any rules of engagement, or rules of war. You have to respect what people like that are capable of because if you don't, you'll end up dead. The more I learn about the Mando culture the more I can identify with them. I appreciate Mandalorians because I know what being away from family to fight a war is like. Family means the world to me like it does to them. And Mandos are kit/gear buffs like me. I love kit/gear, and Mandos have the coolest gear going. Beskar'gam all the way!"

Click to read the blog Mando'ade and Their Toys by Ramirez. And be sure to visit Star Wars Blogs for other exciting blogs from cast, crew and Lucasfilm VIPs like actors Daniel Logan and Matthew Wood, authors Karen Traviss and Aaron Allston, the legendary droid wrangler Don Bies, as well official licensees like the Topps Star Wars Blog.

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