Born in the suburbs of Los Angeles, California, Mike spent his youth surfing and boating along the coast and learned Spanish the same way as everyone else in California - from constant exposure. Much to the dismay of his New Age Organic Hippie parents, Mike took to training Krav Maga and after graduating from High School applied and was admitted to United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. This helped him to make himself his own man.

Graduating from Annapolis, Mike became a 2nd Lieutenant in the Marine Corps. He was first assigned to VMMT-204 for training as a pilot officer for the new MV-22 Osprey. After the training there, he was transferred to VMM-263 "Thunder Chickens".

Serving several rotations abroad, Mike was passed over in promotions several times, making 1st Lieutenant only after four years of service and never got his promotion to Captain. He was flying a sortie in Afghanistan when his Osprey was hit by a MANPAD, something that was not supposed to be there as they were flying in a "safe zone", and it was only by a miracle he managed to land his crippled bird without killing everyone aboard. After pulling his wounded crew chief and a couple of his passengers out of the plane, Mike gave first aid to the wounded and held off a group of hostiles until they were EVAC'd five hours later. Ordinarily, one would have received a medal for such an action, but unknown to Mike, he never got one.

It was only after they had been EVAC'd, Mike realized he had been hit too. He took the chance to opt out on medical grounds, then proceeded to get his civilian licences for both helos and fixed wing planes, but the job as a glorified taxi driver for the rich was not very appealing and after a while flying big names around, Mike got the offer to join Lindgren Inc. - something he took to right away.