Rudy was born in 1971 on Richard’s Gebauer Air Base in Missouri while his father, a US Marine, was fighting in Vietnam. By 9 years old, Rudy was the man of the house and, by 11 years old, he and his brothers were homeless and placed into foster care before ending up at The Omaha Home For Boys. Since then, he has lived in several different places with his brothers. During his younger years (age 11 throughout his youth), Rudy competed in wrestling and football and developed a deep affection for comic books and heroes. At age 18, he studied martial arts and trained in Kung-Fu, eventually winning the title of International Jing Woo Martial Art College Champion multiple times and earning over 20 medals. He worked various jobs from construction to table bussing, all while training as a kickboxer. Rudy watched a film covering orphans in Kosovo whose parents were killed by their own country’s snipers. He was so compelled to do something to help, that in 1998 at age 26, he decided to enlist in the United States Marine Corps (USMC) as an infantryman. After being a special forces operator for three years, during which Rudy became a “schooled-out” (paratrooper, combat diver, demolitions expert, scout sniper, closed quarter combatant, and SERE trained) Recon Marine, Rudy was called for his first combat reconnaissance mission in 2001 in Pakistan – a preparation mission for USA’s Special Ops insertion to Afghanistan. Once the war officially started, his team ran operations that located and destroyed Al Qaeda within Afghanistan.

Rudy finished his service as a highly decorated Special Forces operator with experience leading over 50 patrols behind enemy lines. He served one tour in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and two tours in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) as a Recon Marine Team Leader and Scout Sniper. Rudy’s areas of military expertise are in close quarter battle, urban warfare, amphibious raids and reconnaissance, helicopter insertions/extractions, paratrooper and combat diver missions, clandestine sniper missions and plain clothes/undercover operations. He’s operated in many different environments including urban, mountain, and desert.

After leaving the Marines, Rudy worked as a counter-terror contractor for the Department of Defense. And, after leaving the military, Rudy spent time in Africa where he trained wildlife preserve rangers in anti-poaching tactics and later went on to found ‘Force Blue’ a Veteran Non-Profit which pairs former Special Operators with Marine Scientists to work rebuilding and restoring coral reefs, saving turtles, and working within the conservation community. Rudy is also a mentor at the Gold Star Children in Force Blue Ocean Conservation Mission and is a published author of the self-help book for trauma entitled Hero Living.