Michael Morrow was born in Flint, Michigan, in 1951. He enlisted in the Army in 1971, training as an engineer. Because of the drawdowns in Vietnam, he initially served in the States, including as a platoon sergeant in the 25th and 9th Infantry Divisions before going to officer candidate school in 1977. From there, he served at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and a company commander and a general's aide, and then did a tour in Germany, where he held a variety of posts including as the executive officer of the 275th Atomic Demolition Munitions Company. He held an assortment of other assignments after that, notably in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq during the Gulf War. His last regular assignment was as District Engineer of the St. Louis District, where he had responsibility for engineering work on a long stretch of the Mississippi River and its tributaries. While holding that position, he was called to be in charge of engineering operations for the Central Command, which took him to Qatar, Afghanistan and Iraq before he retired in 2004. He currently serves as mayor of Grafton, Illinois, where he is leading a project that is building a monument to the US Army Rangers who stormed the cliff at Pointe du Hoc in Normandy on D-Day, the National Memorial of the Ascent, which will feature life-size bronze figures climbing the bluff at Grafton on the Mississippi. For more information on the project, go to: graftonmemorial.org