shape of an eagle with an American flag inside with typography that says Salute the Troops 2022
Salute The Troops
In honor of our boating veterans
The military is the backbone of our country. We wouldn’t be where we are today without the selfless actions of our servicemen and women. Deciding to give up a more traditional life and put yourself in harm’s way to protect friends, family, and millions of people you’ve never met takes a rare dedication.

Our annual “Salute The Troops” edition originally started with our July 2016 issue and it’s something we look forward to as a staff every year. We got the idea to do the special feature when we started noticing a trend or pattern in some of the emails and messages we were receiving. A number of the messages coming in were from soldiers who were pontoon and deck boat enthusiasts looking forward to getting out on the water when they returned home to the states. However or whenever you served, this issue is dedicated to you. We want to honor those who put their lives on the line to protect our freedoms. We Salute You!

Misty Wilson
JD Wilson
JD and Misty Wilson
Retired Navy Aviation Electrician Senior Chief & Cryptologist Technician
JD Wilson and his wife Misty are both retired Navy veterans. With 50 years of service between them, they now enjoy some of their downtime on their 2013 Premier Grand View 260 triple pontoon.

JD served 24 years and Misty served 28 years in the Navy. While their times of service did overlap somewhat, they didn’t actually meet until JD was out of the Navy. JD was in from 1979 to 2004 and Misty enlisted in 1982, got out, then went back in again and retired in 2011.

As a 17-year-old living in north Georgia, JD enlisted and turned 18 in boot camp in San Diego, Calif. From there he went to Virginia where he was stationed for about four years. He was then selected to fly in an air program and ended up in Jacksonville, Fla., for the schooling.

The list of places he was stationed afterwards is quite lengthy but includes California, Louisiana, and Virginia. He did two shipboard deployments with helicopters, and as a P-3 Flight Engineer he flew all over the world. He was an aviation electrician and by the time he retired, he had achieved the title of Aviation Electrician Senior Chief.

As for Misty, she enlisted in the Navy when she was 18. Her father had served for 20 years in the Navy, so joining up out of high school had definitely been on her mind.

She went to boot camp in Orlando, Fla. At the time, that was the only place for female recruits to go. She was originally a machinist, where they had very few females back then. Then about mid-career, she switched rates and became what they call a cryptologist technician.

JD Wilson with his granddaughter driving the boat
Misty completed a tour in Iraq and in Afghanistan before retiring in 2011. During her tour in Iraq, she had the unique experience of serving alongside her son who is in the Army.

“He came right as I was leaving,” described Misty. “It was kind of an interesting thing to have a mom and a son out there at the same time.”

Her son was in the Army National Guard when he was activated for the tour in Iraq. JD’s son has also completed 13 years of active duty in the Army and is actually just about to get out. Then Misty’s younger son has served six years in the Navy.

Both Misty and JD have very strong feelings about serving in the Navy. “I was a single mom for a while in the military and it was tough,” shared Misty. “I tried really hard to be a great role model for my kids.”

She feels that service is a wonderful thing, especially for young people who don’t have a good idea of what they want to do after high school. Going into the service is a great way to find your way. For Misty, it was a wonderful experience and she got to see and do things she otherwise would never have had the opportunity to do.

JD has similar feelings. “Back then, nobody went in with the intention of staying 20 years and I don’t know if they do now or not,” mused JD. “I had no intention of staying 20 years, but once I got in it, I enjoyed it and then I got selected for that flight program and that was the best job ever for me.”

As he got closer to retirement, he was a single dad as well so he knew it was time to get out. “I would have stayed for 30 if I hadn’t been a single dad,” added JD.

JD and Misty Wilson on their boat
JD Wilson and his granddaughter
Once he was out, he went into real estate which is actually how he met Misty—he was her real estate agent when she bought her home in 2005. Now he always jokes with her about how he would have sold her a better townhouse had he known he was going to live there. He ended up doing a whole bunch of work on it while she was away in Afghanistan. They still share a good laugh about it.

After they got married, they bought a larger house on the water in Virginia which they rented out for a while. Now they live about an hour away from where Misty grew up in South Carolina. It serves as the perfect spot for family gatherings where the grandkids can have fun on the lake and everyone can enjoy JD and Misty’s Premier boat.

Last year, they upgraded from a deck boat to their current 2013 Premier Grand View 260 triple pontoon with a 250hp Mercury and they’ve fallen in love. The vessel fits their family needs perfectly. They actually have a disabled granddaughter in a wheelchair and they’re able to simply wheel her right onto the boat thanks to its spaciousness.

Last year, they had another of their granddaughters, who was one at the time, out on the boat for her first adventure. As a huge boating family, JD and Misty’s grandkids have been out on the boat since day one. They put the adorable one-year-old in a Little Tikes swing and hung it from the Bimini where she swung happily, charming everyone on board.

Between the two of them, JD and Misty have six kids with a grand total of nine grandchildren. For the Fourth of July they all like to converge at JD and Misty’s lake house so they can boat and enjoy each other’s company. After their 50 years of service in the Navy, JD and Misty love to spend time with their family, relaxing and having fun on their Premier. –Heather Magda Serrano

Marvin “Eddie” Edwards
Marvin “Eddie” Edwards
Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant
Marvin Edwards, affectionately known by his friends as “Eddie,” is a man who finds a way to enjoy whatever he’s doing, whether he’s working in some capacity or out on the water in his JC Sunlounger TriToon. When asked about his years serving in the Marine Corps as a Gunnery Sergeant, he says without hesitation that he enjoyed every minute of it.

Eddie entered the Marines right out of high school with a curiosity for the world and a desire to learn from the water. It was here that his love of water really began.

“I didn’t grow up on the water,” he admits. “It just happened while I was serving in the Marines. Now it’s a very active part of my life.”

Marvin “Eddie” Edwards on his boat
boat with a cover on it
Eddie recalls his experiences of traveling around the globe through his 20-plus years of service in the Marines. He visited 90 different countries with tours in Al-Fallujah, Iraq. He never saw his time in the military as a burden, but rather an opportunity to experience the world and serve his country with honor.

When retirement arrived, Eddie was uncomfortable with the idea of not having an occupation. Working hard and serving others is just in his nature, so he took a job as a department supervisor at Lowe’s. When he’s not at Lowe’s, he enjoys time out on the water in his pontoon with his wife Laura (known by friends as “Betty”) or working together on a remodel project of their two lakeside cottages that will soon be joined into one structure.

Marvin “Eddie” Edwards and his wife Laura in front of their boat
Eddie and Betty love their life on the water and recognize daily the gift of freedom and prosperity they enjoy.

“It was my military career that really enabled us to have the life we enjoy now,” Eddie admits.

While they call Indian Lake in Ohio their home, it is clear that Eddie Edwards sees his country as a whole as a home worth cherishing and protecting.

“Serving my country was the greatest experience I could have ever hoped for in my life,” he says. “It was a privilege. It made me who I am today.” –Annie Carbutt

Gary Mashburn
Gary Mashburn
Retired Air Force Master Sergeant
Gary Mashburn is a retired Air Force veteran who just took delivery of his new Avalon Catalina Platinum Quad Lounger with a Mercury 400R outboard in April. With both his parents being veterans, joining the Air Force felt like something he should do, so he enlisted in 1991.

Gary didn’t initially plan on making a career out of the Air Force, but once he got in it worked out and he ended up staying 20 years and 13 days. He joined right out of high school just a couple months after his 18th birthday.

Gary Mashburn and his wife, Angela
Gary Mashburn driving his boat
Gary Mashburn and his wife on their boat
He worked his way up to the rank of Air Force master sergeant, working in RF transmissions. He was a noncommissioned officer in charge of his section. He served in Georgia, Fort Walton Beach, Fla., and then spent 10 years overseas in Germany and Belgium.

“Being in the Air Force has 100 percent had a huge impact on my life,” shared Gary. “It helped me grow up a lot and be a part of something bigger than myself. Because of that, I felt good when I was going to work every day and I still carry that on now. Now I work for the federal government and still associate with the military. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea but for me it fit.”

Gary and his wife Angela are loving their new Avalon. Before they got together, Angela used to spend a lot of time on the lake in California and on Lake Havasu in Arizona. She used to drive over there and knew she really enjoyed boating.

boy sitting on a boat
two kids with life vest on hanging out in the lake
Gary and Angela often ended up going on vacation to the same places so they decided they wanted to get something they could use outside of vacation. They were thinking of buying something like an RV or a cabin, but then Angela brought up getting a boat. They both knew that was what they wanted.

They’re up on the coast in the Maryland and Virginia area where there are plenty of waterways for using their boat. Thanks to the Waveglider package, Gary is loving how smooth the pontoon rides. Now this Air Force veteran plans to spend his summer enjoying his new Avalon pontoon with his wife. –Heather Magda Serrano

Loren Westcott
Loren Westcott
Retired Army E6 Staff Sergeant
Loren Westcott served in the US Army from 1981 to 1987 and now owns a 2016 Cypress Cay pontoon boat. With his father in the Army before Loren was born, along with several uncles and cousins who served in the military, Loren feels that serving the public is written into his DNA.

Loren later went on to be a career firefighter/EMT and retired as a captain from the Syracuse Fire Department in New York after more than 22 years of service. He now works as a personal trainer, continuing to help people stay healthy and reach their goals.

After high school, Loren went to college and only after graduating did he decide to enlist in the Army. In the beginning his military experience was very fun and he loved the great group of people he worked with.

Loren was assigned to an Army Reserve Unit in Utica, N.Y., which is where he did his drills. He went on a summer training for two weeks every summer and he usually went as the advance party and then stayed back after everybody left. As a result, he was sometimes gone up to a month at a time. When he was discharged in 1987, he’d reached the rank of E6 Staff Sergeant and worked as a supervisor in a combat engineer unit in the motor pool where they were in charge of the maintenance of all the equipment.

“I got to see some of the country and meet a lot of nice people and have some fun along the way,” reminisced Loren.

Loren was also attached to a unit in Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. In the summertime, they would go there and work beside the regular Army guys and train them how to use equipment.

group hanging out on a boat
One year they actually built a lake out in the middle of nowhere which was used for training the personnel on deploying portable bridges. He participated in the building of the lake itself, operating the equipment and overseeing things. The next year when they went out, the lake was completed so Loren and five other guys from his unit went up in a helicopter to view it from the air.

Now Loren lives right on Oneida Lake in Central New York where he docks and uses his Cypress Cay triple pontoon frequently. He likes to take it out multiple times a week with friends and family when the weather is good. He’s got three children and his wife has four; between the two of them they have 12 grandchildren who all enjoy spending time on the boat.

There’s a bay not too far from their house that has a sandy bottom where people tend to congregate, so Loren and his family and friends go to the knee-deep water where they anchor, cook food and have drinks while listening to music and socializing.

Loren has been boating pretty much all of his life and has owned boats since his late teens. The boat he owned before his Cypress Cay was a cuddy cabin, but they weren’t sleeping on it much so they decided the pontoon would be more practical since they usually had more people than they could fit on the previous boat.

Their Cypress Cay pontoon is the perfect fit for this retired Army veteran and his family. Loren couldn’t be happier with the way things have worked out and he always has a blast boating with his friends and family. –Heather Magda Serrano

Michael Klaphake
Michael Klaphake
Lieutenant Colonel
A native of Melrose, Minn., Michael Klaphake is currently serving as commander of the 1st Squadron 94th Cavalry, 34th Infantry Division (Red Bulls) based out of Duluth, Minn. For Mike, any opportunity to serve his country and the people he loves is forefront in his life.

Mike’s military service goes back to what started as an initial desire to pay his way through school but soon developed into a deeper desire to serve and protect his country. He began as an enlisted soldier in the Minnesota National Guard in October 2000, was commissioned through ROTC in 2003 and then deployed as a platoon leader to Baghdad, Iraq, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2004 to 2006.

army tank
dog sitting on a boat
After returning from the Middle East, Mike transferred to the Army’s Armor and Cavalry branch where he was promoted to the rank of captain and began commanding Able Troop, 1st Squadron, 94th Cavalry (Hibbing, Minn.) from 2008 to 2012. During his command, he led his unit to the Middle East once again in support of Operation New Dawn from 2011 to 2012. At the rank of major, Mike served as the S-3 Operations Officer for the 1-94 Cavalry and later as an Operations Officer for the 34th Infantry Division Headquarters.

Mike was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and deployed a third time to the Middle East with the Red Bulls in 2018. Here, he commanded the 1st Squadron 94th Cavalry in 2019 until March of 2022. He now serves as the G3 for the 34th Infantry Division.

young girl and dog sitting on a boat
In his years of service, Mike has been honored with numerous awards, including the Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, and the Army Commendation Medal in addition to multiple foreign service campaign medals.

In the precious hours when Mike is not on duty, he focuses his gift of serving others on his hometown of Delano, Minn., most especially on his wife, Kristy, and their three daughters, Avery, Emery and Aniston.

three girls and a dog sitting on a boat together
One important way they spend their time together and create lasting memories is out on the water in their Apex Marine Qwest triple pontoon.

Mike and his family love being on the water. Even with the short boating season in Minnesota, they take every opportunity they can to go pontooning. During fair weather, he says, they’re out on the water at least a couple times a week if possible. They’ve made countless happy memories as a family while on their pontoon together.

hand holding a beer and girl reading a book on boat
boat dock
Whether serving in the military or spending a day in the pontoon out on the lake, for Mike it all comes back to relationships.

“I serve my country because of the people,” he says. “At the end of the day, I just want to know that the people who matter most to me are safe and well. And I’m honored to play a role in their protection and happiness.” –Annie Carbutt

Sean Corey
Sean Corey
Retired Marine Corporal
Sean Corey is a retired Marine veteran who recently bought a 25-foot Sylvan PartyFish pontoon. He enlisted in the service in 1991 when the economy was taking a dive.

“The war started breaking out, so I thought I needed to go,” explained Sean. “I wanted to be in the branch that was going to be in the front lines—that’s your Marine Corps, so I joined them.”

Once he got in, they moved him from infantry to crash/fire rescue. He spent one year in Okinawa, Japan, and then four years in New River in North Carolina. He served from 1991 to 1995 and achieved the rank of corporal.

“I loved every minute I was in it,” shared Sean. “I got married to my wife right when I got in and we’re still married. We’ve been married for 30 years now.”

group hanging out on a boat
Sean’s first duty station was Okinawa and he was able to bring his wife along. He was a private first class marine and she was a beautician, so she was able to make good money in Japan. They stayed there for a year and they got to scuba dive and have a good time together.

To this day, Sean stays in contact with the friends he made in the Marine Corps. “I loved everything about it,” reiterated Sean. “I loved being in the Marines and I loved the brotherhood of a marine.”

Now Sean owns a PartyFish pontoon from Sylvan. He just bought it last year and his whole family loves it. He and his wife have two kids and his oldest son just moved back with his wife after serving four years in the Air Force. Now everybody comes over to go boating with them, including Sean’s younger son and his son’s girlfriend.

“We barbeque and we’re out on the lake,” described Sean. “We can all fit on the boat and we all just have a great time with it. We love it.” –Heather Magda Serrano

Robert Layer
Robert Layer
Retired Navy Interior Communications Electrician
Robert Layer is a Navy veteran who now enjoys his summers boating on his 2019 20-foot Bennington pontoon boat with his family. Robert decided to enlist in the service back in 2002, shortly after the events of September 11.

“It felt like something I wanted to do and needed to do,” described Robert. “My grandfather had been in the Navy during World War II, so that was why I chose to join the Navy as opposed to other branches of the service. I had family history with it.”

He served for four years active-duty and then four years in reserve. He was out of active-duty in 2006, and shortly before getting out, he met his wife during Fleet Week in New York City. They met while he was in uniform and they’re still together today.

While Robert served in the Navy, he became an interior communications electrician, mostly specializing in telecommunications throughout the ship. “I lived for three of my four years of active-duty onboard a Destroyer,” shared Robert. “I got to cross the Atlantic Ocean multiple times. I got to go into the Mediterranean and see a lot of Europe including areas like Italy, France and Spain. We went to all the different coastal areas throughout the Mediterranean during that time.”

He was honorably discharged in 2006 and then used his GI benefits to continue his education, working his way all the way up to a master’s degree. Now Robert owns and operates his own insurance agency business in a little town in northwest Connecticut. He’s been successful in this business for seven years now.

“I attribute all my successes today to being in the Navy,” noted Robert. “I could not be where I am both as a professional and a family man without my time in the service.”

friends hanging out
Robert Layer and his son on their boat
When Robert and his family first moved to Connecticut, they happened to live on a lake and he bought his first little bowrider there. “It’s like when a kid first gets his license and he’s able to drive,” laughed Robert. “You get them a little beater car so they learn to drive with something that can take some dings here and there.”

After a couple years of enjoying the bowrider, he knew boating was something he and his family really enjoyed, so he went ahead and purchased his current 20-foot Bennington pontoon.

“It’s a very, very nice boat,” added Robert. “It was sort of a COVID purchase because I had no intention of buying a brand-new pontoon, but as things were not easily available in the used market, we found a really good deal on this one that we ended up buying. We love it. We’re a pontoon family now for sure and have no interest in going with any other kind of boat for our lake.”

His family uses their Bennington often when the weather is good. They have two sons who love watersports, and Robert feels lucky to have found a pontoon boat that fits both his, his wife and his sons’ preferences. Robert wants the floating living room on the water simply for relaxing, hanging out and socializing with friends, while the kids love wakeboarding and tubing. Their Bennington has everything they’re looking for in a boat.

Robert’s family usually goes out boating at least three to four times a week during the summer. If it’s not just the four of them, they usually have friends they love to bring out. Whether it’s family members or anybody else coming to visit, you can’t visit them without spending some time on the lake in the summer.

Looking back, Robert acknowledges he wouldn’t be where he is today had he not served his country. “I wouldn’t have met my wife at Fleet Week if I hadn’t been in the Navy,” added Robert. “From my work ethic to my success as a business owner, to being able to own something like a pontoon, I owe it all to the Navy.” –Heather Magda Serrano

Brett Parish
Brett Parish
Army Captain O-3E (P)
Brett Parish retired from the U.S. Army in September of 2007 as a CPT/O-3E (P) after serving 21 years. He joined in 1986 during his junior year in high school because he was tired of his parents asking him about his plans for college. He felt he wasn’t quite ready, so he chose the Army because they were offering the largest amount of money for college with the least amount of active-duty time. He jokes about how he wanted to be a helicopter pilot, referencing that as his “my recruiter screwed me story,” while also mentioning that his recruiter didn’t make it abundantly clear on the timeline. Turns out there was an additional five-year inactive or ready reserve obligation to be served after his three-year active-duty commitment. Brett details that he opted to stay in the U.S. Army Reserves because “I was going to use my college fund money, and playing soldier once a month didn’t sound like a bad idea.”

He went to basic training at Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo., then trained at Ft. Huachuca, Ariz., and later at Fort Bragg, N.C. and Ft. Sam Houston, Texas. He was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and was requested by name by the Romanian Defense Minister to train their troops in Romania. He also did a humanitarian mission in Ecuador before finally retiring in 2007.

Brett decided after his first eight years being a reservist that it was a mild inconvenience to take away one weekend a month and that he could ride it out and retire.

“Little did I know what I was getting into after 9/11/2001,” he said. “Everything changed.”

But, thankfully, he was trained and was able to deploy.

“I miss it. I miss jumping out of perfectly good airplanes and helicopters,” Brett reflected. “I miss being able to tell someone to pull their head out of the fourth point of contact and they do not cry about it. I miss the training, the discipline, and the camaraderie.”

Brett and his husband, Cole
However, shortly after joining the Army, Brett lost his parents and sister in a small plane crash, and was unsuccessful in getting a hardship discharge from the military.

“So by default, the Army became my family, and is probably why I am programmed the way I am,” he explained.

But he said he wouldn’t have it any other way because he’s able to see with 20/20 hindsight that if he had been discharged, he would have wandered aimlessly through life and never completed anything. Brett is also grateful that when he retired from the Army and was young enough, and because of being a reservist, he was able to have another career as a physical therapist.

The best day of every man’s life is when he buys his boat, but Brett’s boat story has an even more resplendent start. In 2012, Brett and his husband, Cole, bought their lake house with the intent of it being a weekend home. But Brett moved into the lake house full time in 2013, and Cole did as well during the COVID-19 pandemic. They bought the property for the view of the open water, and unfortunately until this year were boatless. But they paid keen attention to everyone’s likes and dislikes about their boats, and learned what type of boat was best for their home on Cedar Creek Lake in Texas. “A triple pontoon was the only way to go,” Brett added.

Brett and Cole have several friends with Benningtons, and they had every intention of purchasing one because of their fondness of the swing back seat and dual captain’s chair seating, but then they went to the Dallas Boat Show in February of 2019 and discovered Barletta.

Brett and his husband, Cole, on their boat
“The quality and craftsmanship was top notch. The more research we did, the more we were sold. We took the plunge earlier this year in January, and we are now the proud owners of a 2022 Barletta C22UC Black Diamond triple pontoon boat.”

Brett and Cole love their boat’s layout, especially their swing back seat and dual captain’s chairs, and the softness of the vinyl seats, the doggie door view, and the amount of storage space. When mentioning specifics, Brett said that some of his favorite features of his boat are the electric Bimini and the 200hp Mercury motor.

“When we want to get up and get, it doesn’t hesitate,” he specified. “What’s not to like? They’ve really thought of literally everything. Things that are standards on a Barletta are upgrades on the competition.”

Since getting their boat, Brett and Cole typically cruise the shoreline, and they love sunset and full moon cruising. But Cedar Creek Lake hosts an air show every year for the Fourth of July, and this summer, Brett plans to create a flotilla with his friends and be under the aircraft from his boat on the lake rather than watching from the shore. –Ryan Beaty

Mike Jacobson
Mike Jacobson
Retired Army & National Guard Veteran
Mike Jacobson is a retired Army veteran who enjoys spending time on his Lowe Suncruiser with his family. He first joined the Army in 1975 as active duty then got out in 1979. From there he went back into the National Guard in 1987. He served part-time until 1993, and then went active duty with the Active Guard Reserve (AGR) until 2006. In the end, he retired with 27 years under his belt.

Mike initially decided to join the Army because his father retired from the Army and his brother served four years with the Army. It simply felt like something he wanted and needed to do.

“I’m definitely glad I did it,” shared Mike. “It changes a person for the good. I went back to the National Guard because I was missing it and I had run into a couple friends of mine that were in the National Guard.”

He was also a recruiter when he had the opportunity to go back to active duty in the National Guard in 1993. Mike found that one of the biggest benefits of staying in the military for the long-term, regardless of what branch, is the retirement.

Mike Jacobson on his boat
Mike Jacobson with his wife
“I draw a monthly paycheck from Uncle Sam,” explained Mike. “My wife and I are covered 100 percent through the military health insurance. We don’t have to really pay for anything through that, so it sure does help a lot. It allowed me to be able to retire permanently from everything a little over three years ago.”

Now Mike owns a 2007 Suncruiser that he bought in 2014. His family was one of the major reasons he decided to get into the boating lifestyle.

“I had a midlife crisis Mustang convertible in the garage before,” laughed Mike. “I mostly just took it to shows. I enjoyed it, but my wife didn’t, so I decided to get rid of that and buy a pontoon so the whole family could enjoy it.”

Mike’s family has a place at Castle Rock Lake in Wisconsin where the boat stays. They own a cabin there and the whole family enjoys the boat almost every weekend in the summer. It’s the perfect way for this veteran to unwind. –Heather Magda Serrano

Mike Rhode
Mike Rhode
Retired Green Beret
Mike Rhode is a former Green Beret who served in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968. He is now the proud owner of a 20-foot 2006 Crestliner which he uses almost every day in the summertime.

Raised as a military brat with a father in the Air Force, Mike spent the first 21 years of his life as a military dependent, so he was no stranger to that kind of lifestyle. When his grades weren’t the best in school, he knew he was going to get drafted so he decided to beat the draft and enlisted instead.

“I intended to make it a career but after a year in Vietnam I decided that I didn’t want to be a career military anymore,” shared Mike, “so I got out after three years.”

During his service, he was in a remote aid team on the Cambodian border. Their primary mission was interdicting and observing traffic. The Vietnamese came down from the north, heading to Saigon and other southern destinations. They were the closest aid camp to the border and were mortared on a daily basis. They were also overrun a couple of times and were under heavy operations constantly.

“One thing about special forces like the Green Berets is that they want you to be able to go different places in the world at any given time,” explained Mike. “So before I went to Vietnam, I was in what they called the Third Special Forces, and our area of responsibility was Africa and the Middle East. I trained with that stuff in mind for a while.”

boat docked
That’s why the Army sent him to Alaska for survival, mountain and glacier training. He was rigorously trained to be able to go any place, any time. Mike enjoyed his Alaskan training episode and looks back on it fondly.

Mike purchased his current Crestliner a little over a year ago. Prior to this boat he had a 2005 Crestliner that got totaled. He liked the boat so much that he found another Crestliner identical to the one he had before, just a year newer with a slightly larger outboard.

He lives on the McKenzie River about 20 miles from Eugene, Ore., and there’s a two-mile stretch where it’s dammed up and deep enough for a pontoon boat. Mike pretty much keeps it on this lake and enjoys going out, having coffee and fishing just about every morning in the summer. He also goes up to Odell Lake and Green Prairie in the Cascade Mountains.

On Odell Lake, Mike goes to a remote campsite. The only way to get there is by boat, so he enjoys going up there and setting up camp with his friends.

“I’ve got lots of former special forces friends that go with me and family that goes too,” added Mike. “I love it.” –Heather Magda Serrano