From the Marines to MIT
It has been more than a decade since Brent Minchew donned his dress blues, but reminders of his days as a U.S. Marine are everywhere in his office at MIT: a photo with Vice President Al Gore taken at Andrews Air Force Base in January 2001; a matte army-green road bike propped up in the corner, his shaved head and military stature; and, best of all, some spellbinding stories. Minchew was 17 and chasing a life of adventure and purpose when he enlisted in the Marines straight out of high school in 1995. “I grew up in a very small-town mindset, so I'd seen only one very small subset of culture,” he says. “I wanted to see the world and I wanted to understand how other people lived.” After basic training, Minchew was chosen to join HMX-1, the squadron responsible for flying the president of the United States, the vice president, other heads of state, and Department of...