Troy became a professional surfer at age 14. Surfer Magazine described him as the next Sunny Garcia. His career ended after muggers shot him in Queens in 1995. He never seeded again.

He found work at a surf school in Cocoa Beach, FL, where he became a substance abuser and attempted suicide in 1996. He lost his job in 2000. Broke and unemployed, he joined the Marine Corps shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Troy deployed with Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and Freedom II in 2004. In 2007 an IED attack injured him in Mosul. He stayed in the US after recovery. In 2013 he was assigned to Naval Air Station Lemoore, where he met fellow Sargent Barbara Tahoe. They married in 2016. Both enjoyed surfing.

She introduced Troy to Buddhism to help him back to the happy surfer dude he once was. It also helped him cope with her 2018 breast cancer diagnosis. She gifted Troy a kitty to keep him company after she passed in 2019. She named him Jonesy after Indiana Jones, her favorite movie. She never watched Alien.

Troy was in Fresno when the Romero Virus overran the base in 2023. Troy headed to LA with Jonesy for evacuation. Rumor was that they accepted pets. They didn’t. And he arrived too late anyway.