Biography

A Wisconsin native, I grew up in a small town southeast of here, Mt. Calvary, WI. I went to elementary and high school in New Holstein. At the age of 8, my fellow farmer classmates asked me about working summers at their family farm. The thought of having my own spending money sounded exciting! At first, I picked stones in the spring, but after a few years I started to also bale hay throughout the summer. By the time I was 14, I was a dedicated hand working year-round on a dairy farm. By 16 I had my driver’s license, my strong work ethic drove me to other jobs during nights, weekends, and the summer. I also made time for wrestling and football in the fall and winter, where I lettered in both all four years. It was during these formative years I learned the self-confidence and satisfaction that comes with hard work and dedication. 

The history and “esprit de corps” of The Marines drew my attention as my high school career was coming to a close. The challenge was a natural choice for me. I wanted to learn a trade, travel, and fulfill my sense of service while building relationships where my teammates and coworkers are like family. The day after my graduation in 2000,I left for bootcamp. After completion of basic, combat, and aviation training, I was stationed on Camp Pendleton in Southern California. My first deployment started in the serine tropical environment of Japan in early 2001. My days were spent working on the flightline, but my evenings and weekends were spent learning the history and culture of Okinawa. That all changed when the devastating attacks of 9/11 happened. The intensity of my enlistment took on a very different feel. My next deployment started in Kuwait where my unit was staged prior to the invasion. After the war started, we were part of the first wave into Iraq. My third deployment was also to Iraq where my unit took part in The Second Battle for Fallujah.

I joined Air Wisconsin in 2018 and my first role was as a maintenance planner. The role of a planner is to schedule aircraft to have their maintenance performed, either during an overnight hanger visit or by mechanics on the flight line. This requires coordination with the national maintenance group hangers, flight dispatch departments, and the system duty manager.  From there, I went into the maintenance training department where I was creating curriculum, designing computer-based training, as well as teaching mechanics in classroom and hanger settings. Two of the courses I am most proud of creating were a forty-hour “Systems Description and Operation” class for a new aircraft to our fleet and an eight-hour “Safety and Human Factors in Aviation”. From there I accepted a role in the Maintenance Technical Support department. This group deals with all the outside and internal engineering changes, manual updates, as well as the special, sensitive, or proprietary projects.

After about a year in the Tech Support group, I was offered the manager position. Since taking this position, every project has been completed on or ahead of schedule, as well as within budget. This is due to the excellent team at Air Wisconsin, as well as thorough planning before any project begins. The mission planning steps that I learned in the Marines can also be applied to project planning, BAMCIS. BAMCIS is explained in greater detail below, but the biggest components are research and communication. These two items are essential to all aspects of private and public endeavors, and both seem to be missing from the Neenah City Council meetings. The multimillion-dollar budget that I put together each year is based on meticulous review of previous expenditures, expected new projects, and always adjusted for predicted increases based on inflation and other market conditions.