Michael Russo

Mike is a 21-year veteran of the United States Navy. After enlisting in the Navy in 1981, he began his career as an F-14 Tomcat mechanic. In 1983-1984, he deployed onboard the USS John F. Kennedy for eight months and participated in UN operations off the coast of Beirut, Lebanon. In 1990, he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and was commissioned as an Ensign. In 1993 he made another six month deployment to the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Bosnia onboard the USS Saratoga and in 1997-1998 onboard the
USS George Washington where his team participated in Operation Southern Watch off the coast of Iraq. He was awarded the U.S. Navy’s prestigious F-14 Tomcat Maintenance Officer of the Year for 1998. He has had the pleasure of working with so many Great Americans throughout his career. He retired from the Navy as a Lieutenant Commander in 2002 and began a career in private industry. He has a Master’s Degree in Management and continues to write technical proposals and public relations articles for both private industry and public defense issues. He has worked for several different organizations, leading and motivating a number of departments and large teams of maintainers, logisticians and analysts. His first book, Everlene’s Sky, an inspirational, fact-based novel about a life-long polio survivor was published in the winter of 2014. He has two grown sons who are awesome – and he became a grandpa last year. He lives in Winston-Salem, NC with his wife of 30 years.