Michael Marks:
CLASS OF 1978
Dade Christian High SchoolClass of 1978
Miami, FL
Michael's Story
Life has been an adventure. I'm lucky to have lived it, maybe luckier yet to have survived it.
College was a degree in Criminal Justice, (hey, no laughing) followed by Law School. (seriously, I said no laughing) To nobody's shock I was part of a racing team that ran a beefed up 67 Camaro. We had an annual tradition of an insane Halloween party that grew to some 300 people at the end (shades of the DCS haunted hayride). Some things never change.
From college it was on to DC to start a career in DOD/IC work that took me around the world. I was in the jungles of Nicaragua up to and thru the CONTRA crisis, then underground in North Korea, a hop thru China, across the Middle East, Russia, Africa and finally Afghanistan embedded with US Special Forces in Wardak and west of Kandahar. That last one was when being a Crusader took on a whole new level of meaning for me. I thought Miss McCoy would be proud, but I never felt farther from home. Took part in a no-kidding heavily-armed mission with a Navy SEAL and some ODA mem...Expand for more
bers... all to rescue a US service dog. Best day ever. Got to work with some real heroes, made some great friends, lost some as well. Lost a bunch all at once August 2011.
Authored a few books along the way, some for fun, others for counter-terrorism and emergency response training, The most recent one tells the origins of the Predator drone program from the inside... the parts of the story that nobody has ever told before. It took over five years of legal wrangling to get that one cleared for publication.
Getting a little long in the tooth these days, but still in the fight. Ran projects at the National Geo-Spatial Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office, now with the US Navy Space Warfare Command. Love the challenges of inventing new ways to protect America. I can't imagine ever quitting.
Now living a quiet life in the mountains of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, surrounded by a zillion acres of national forest. Biggest hazard is the occasional bear on the deck, but they are largely well-mannered.
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