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used weight lifting and intensive training to precision shape his body.
He bragged to his online followers that he had reduced his "body fat
percentage to between 9.5% and 10.5%" (which was less than half
of the average for his age). He wrote that he wore "cool" purple sun-
glasses, practiced martial arts, and was a fan of Japanese cuisine. He
described himself at one point, as if advertising his virtues, as having
a "head of vibrant, shimmering blond hair (with volume)."

He appeared somewhat restless with his solitary life in his almost
daily postings. He expressed a longing to go to Japan. "I've always
dreamed of being able to 'make it' in Japan. I've taken Japanese for
a year and a half," he wrote in 2002. Despite his claim of learning
Japanese, there is no record of his taking any courses in Japanese.
But it was perhaps part of his yearning. In pursuit of an employ-
ment opportunity in Japan, he posted, "I'd love a cushy gov job over
there." Eventually, he gave up on the idea of relocating himself to
Japan because, as he explained in a post, he would have to put his cats
in quarantine for six months.

Snowden's father meanwhile moved to Pennsylvania with his
new wife-to-be. This left Snowden with only one male family mem-
ber in the area, his maternal grandfather, Admiral Barrett, who was
now in the top echelon of U.S. intelligence working at the Pentagon.
Barrett was there when a plane piloted by terrorists crashed into it
on 9/11. He emerged unscathed.

Snowden sought to join the Special Forces through the 18X pro-
gram, a U.S. Army Reserve program created in 2003 that allowed
individuals who had not served in the military or completed their
education to train to be a Special Forces recruit. He listed his religion
on the application as Buddhist because, as he explained in a sardonic
post on Ars Technica, "agnostic is strangely absent" from the form.

He enlisted in the army reserves on May 7, 2004, according to
U.S. Army records. He reported for a ten-week basic training at Fort
Benning, Georgia, which was standard for all enlistees in the infan-
try. In August, he began a three-week course in parachute jumping
but did not complete that training. As Snowden put it in his Inter-
net postings, he "washed out." He was discharged on September 29,
2004, ending his nineteen-week military career. Snowden would
later claim on the Internet that he returned to civilian life because

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