Upon graduation from Elmhurst College in Illinois, Ed enlisted in the Navy in 1965, reported to Officers Candidate School, received his commission as an Ensign, began flight training in 1966, and received his Wings of Gold in 1967. Over the next 20 years he accumulated 3,400 flight hours, 450 carrier landings, 220 combat missions over Vietnam, and one ejection over the Gulf of Tonkin. He also served as a flight instructor at Naval Air Station Kingsville, TX, and went through the Navy Fighter Weapons School known as TOPGUN twice, once as a fleet pilot and once as an adversary instructor pilot, where the Navy trained fleet fighter crews at the graduate level in aerial dogfight and airstrike tactics, techniques, procedures, and doctrine and all aspects of fighter weapons systems at the former Naval Air Station Miramar, nicknamed “Fightertown USA.” Ed’s duty stations included the USS Constellation and the USS Juneau as a Surface Warfare Officer. Ed was awarded 11 Air Medals “for extraordinary achievement and meritorious acts in aerial flight against the enemy,” the Navy Commendation Medal with Combat V – 2, Naval and Armed Forces Expeditionary Medals, National Defense and Vietnam Service Medals, and the Vietnam Campaign Medal. Upon retiring from the Navy in 1987, Ed earned an MBA in Computer Management at National University in San Diego as his class of 1987 Valedictorian and ever since has worked at Hendrickson Appraisal Company in San Diego as a real estate appraiser. Ed has volunteered at PGA and PGA Champions Tour Golf Tournaments since 1995, including 23 years at the Hoag Classic as a walking scorer through 2020. Ed resides in San Diego with his wife of 50 years, Julie.