Mike Walter Menser was born in 1944 in Oakland, California to Mansel Walter and Helen Elizabeth Hougler Menser. Mike graduated from high school in 1962 and went to work as a roustabout, then as a roughneck. He attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah later enlisting in the Army and was sent to Fort Ord, California for his basic training, and to Fort Gordon, Georgia for airborne infantry AIT. Mike was sent to Vietnam where he attended the Special Forces LRRP school in Nha trang. He was in the field for six months before being wounded. He went to Camp Zama in Japan and returned to Long Binh, assigned to his alternate specialty as small arms repairman in the 61^st Heavy Equipment Maintenance Company working mainly with the 11^th CAV. After his 30 day leave, he was sent to 196^th Light Infantry Brigade and Alpha Company, 4^th Battalion, 31^st Infantry. Mike, now an E-5 squad leader, walked point in the 2^nd Platoon and after being wounded again, he decided to re-up for six years and attend OCS school. At Fort Benning, Georgia, he graduated 1^st in his class, received distinguished honor graduate and was promoted to 2^nd Lieutenant. He married and had one daughter. Mike moved to the airborne department and became an instructor and trained airborne and paratrooper candidates for a year and a half before joining the 26th Infantry Blue Spaders in Germany as A Company commander. He served as operations officer of a recruiting battalion in Lansing, Michigan and in 1981, Mike joined the MFO, Multinational Force and Observers that manned the buffer zone between Egypt and Israel. After a year and a half, he was transferred to Fort Benning where he commanded 24^th Company. He served as Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in 1985-86. He retired in 1995, moved back to Utah, is married to Christine Watkins Menser and has three daughters.