Randall Claude Weaver was born on January 3, 1948.  He was the only boy of four children born to Clarence and Wilma Weaver, a farming couple from Villisca, Iowa.  The Weavers were deeply religious, however they had a difficult time finding a denomination which matched their views, hence they often bounced back and forth from Evangelical, Presbyterian, and Baptist churches.  As Randy grew up, he strove to make his father proud.  He earned decent grades in school and enjoyed a variety of sports and ultimately accepted Jesus as his savior at the age of 11. 

Graduating from high school in 1966, Randy enrolled in Iowa Central Community College, where he met a pretty young student named Vicki Jordison.  Following a school dance the two started dating and began to grow very close.  Vicki Jordison was a year younger than Randy and had grown up in Fort Dodge, Iowa, just 50 miles north of Randy's childhood home.  Similar to Randy, Vicki had also been raised with conflicting religious teachings.  Her mother was a Congregationalist and her father a Mormon.  Throughout her childhood, her father would often attempt to foretell current events as he compared the Bible’s prophecies with the newspaper.  As she grew into a young woman, Vicki was considered highly intelligent by her peers.  She excelled in school and eventually became vice president of the Pleasant Valley Future Business Leaders of America and an active member in the Pixies 4-H group.  Her younger sister, Julie, later stated that she was the kind of person that everyone liked and envied.  In 1967 Vicki graduated from Fort Dodge High School and enrolled in Iowa Central Community College. 

Despite the growing passion between Randy and Vicki, the war in Vietnam was beginning to escalate and Randy had a strong desire to fight for his country.  In October of 1968 he said his good byes to Vicki, dropped out of school and joined the United States Army.  Randy excelled in the military and quickly qualified for the Green Berets.  The training is extremely demanding.  Candidates must learn to survive with little food and equipment in the harshest of conditions, while becoming an expert in all forms of combat weapons and explosives.  Randy again excelled and was promoted to the rank of sergeant following his training.

Randy's first assignment was at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.  While most would have relished in the state side duty, he highly resented it.  Randy could not understand the point of going through all the special training and not being able to put any of it to use.  Friends later said that he became bitter over the fact that men who wanted nothing to do with the war were being sent over every day, and yet he, a trained warrior who had volunteered to go, sat at an Army base with minimal duties.  As Randy waited for combat duty, Vicki Jordison was finishing her college studies, earning a two-year degree in business and was busy securing a job at the United Way.