Robert R Elseth

Lieutenant Commander, United States Naval Reserve.

He took his commission after Ohio State in 1987 and served as a junior engineering officer aboard the Claude V. Ricketts and as gunnery officer aboard the Donald B. Beary, qualifying as a surface warfare officer in 1990. He instructed in boiler water and feedwater at the Surface Warfare Officer School at Newport, where he was named junior officer of the year for 1994 and certified as a master training specialist, and graduated from the Naval War College in 1995. His last active assignment was chief engineer of the John Rodgers at Mayport.

He left active duty in 1997 to spend more time with his family and stayed in the reserve, serving with a shipbuilding and repair detachment and finishing as its executive officer. He began at the Naval Command Center in October 2000.

He taught Sunday school and coached girls' soccer, and in 2000 was a founding partner of a defence consulting firm.