Cleveland Crist was born in 1948 in Beloit, Kansas to Homer G. Crist and Phyllis Mae Crist. He majored in industrial arts in high school winning the Leo Award for academic excellence. After graduation from Westminster High School in 1966, he worked for two years as a draftsman for an aerospace company. After marrying Delores Guy Cleve he received his draft notice and was sent to Fort Ord, California for Army Basic Training. After advanced training he was deployed to Vietnam and was assigned to 3^rd Platoon A Company 4^th Battalion 31^st Infantry 196^th Light Infantry Brigade, Americal Division. He carried the M-79 grenade launcher then the M-16 and then the M60. He remembers being on the move all of the time with only time to take catnaps and constantly feeling tired while rotating around from the field to fire support bases, LZ Siberia or LZ West. Cleve served eleven months in the field. In the States before being discharged, he was sent to a mechanized unit at Fort Hood. After discharge he moved back to California to work with his brother, Victor then years later to Colorado and worked with his brother Johnny who owned Colorado Custom Elevator and Lift..