Ron graduated high school with forty-seven other students from Ivanhoe Public School in Ivanhoe, Minnesota, in 1967. He went on to graduate from Southern Illinois University with a bachelor of science in occupational education. In 1979, he was accepted into Aviation Officer Candidate School (AOCS) in Pensacola, Florida, and obtained a commission as a Navy Ensign. He served as a Navy Intelligence Offi- cer for twenty-two years with nearly 1,300 days at sea on Western Pacific/Indian Ocean deployments. He retired from active duty as a Commander in 2002.
Ron continued his service as a federal employee assigned to Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, San Diego (SPAWAR) (now Naval Information Warfare Systems Command [NAVWAR]). There, he achieved certification as a Level-III Acquisition Program Manager, accredited to lead contract awarding and procurement management. He later assumed a position as the Project Director for the Navy’s Command and Control System and subsequently as the Deputy for Business Development for the Systems Center’s Command and Control Division. He retired in 2014 at the highest General Schedule rank level, GS-15.
Ron lives with his wife, Anne, in the San Diego area.
Steve graduated high school with twenty-nine other students from Ivanhoe Public School in Ivanhoe, Minnesota, in 1985. He attended the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where he graduated with a degree in aerospace engineering in 1989. From there, he became a Marine F/A-18 fighter pilot, graduate of TOPGUN, and went on to amass 3,473 hours of flight time in fighters, including the F-16. He received a master’s in business administration with an emphasis in military leadership, as well as completed one hundred combat missions in Bosnia and Iraq.
Steve has run two small businesses, including a training and consult- ing firm (focused on medical safety in the operating room) and a small preschool. He earned a green belt in Lean Six Sigma (Dart- mouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire), as well as graduated from the Leadership and Strategic Impact Course (Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College) and the Senior Manager Course in National Security Leadership (Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University). Finally, Steve trained and qualified as a Joint Task Force Commander and a Dual Status Commander for Domestic Operations.
Steve lives with his wife, Laura, and their four children in Vermont, where Steve served as a Brigadier General in the Vermont Air National Guard and currently works as a pilot for a major US airline.
