“Former Action Guy” Remains Addictively Active

CEDAR RAPIDS - Laptop? Check.

I-phone? Check

Tablet? Check.

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Check.

As if former Green Beret Mike McElmeel isn't busy enough - he's full-time at PerMar Security, works part-time with the Delaware County Sheriff's Office and two ambulance services and officiates three sports - he's active with 16 social media Internet sites.

"I don't really consider myself busy," says Mike, 48, setting aside his electronic gizmos for a live chat. "I just do what I do."

He goes to bed about midnight; rises at 5 a.m.

"I'm home a couple of nights a week," he says. "That's more than when I was in the military."

His wife, Starr (they'll celebrate their 25th anniversary this summer), and four adopted children, ages 17 to 28, don't mind. Staying busy is his way of avoiding boredom.

A Manchester native who grew up in Cedar Rapids (Kennedy graduate, 1982), he made pizza at a Happy Joe's on Council Street NE. He listened to an assistant manager, a Vietnam veteran, talk about the 82nd Airborne. His father had been an Air Force cartographer. He had a poster of John Wayne from the "Green Berets," on his bedroom wall. He was hooked.

Enlisting in 1982, Mike worked his way up through special forces ranks to become a Green Beret by 1990. His assignments took him around the world, Sinai Peninsula, Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq. He retired in 2004, returned to Cedar Rapids.

Mike admits he still misses it. He hears about other special forces missions, namely those of the Navy Seals.

"We were quiet professionals," he says. "You do your job, you do a good job and don't brag about it and you move on."

Check out one of the last 2011 posts on his Former Action Guy blog at http://mikemac356.blogspot.com and you'll see that he misses special forces every day.

"It was the best job I ever had. You're working with some of the most elite guys you'd meet anywhere. A huge amount of job satisfaction."

So, what's a guy who was trained in hand-to-hand combat, who fought the enemy and won, who completed 2,500 parachute jumps, to do?

For Mike, physical security operations manager at PerMar, it is now ensuring that customers and security offices are happy. It is writing occasional stories for RealCombatLife.com and his blog. And it is staying otherwise extremely busy.

A couple times a month he rides shotgun as a reserve deputy in Delaware County. He's nearing the end of training and assists with traffic control for special events.

Six times a month he works a 12-hour shift as an EMT with the North Benton Ambulance Service out of Vinton; he volunteers another 60- to 100-hours a month with the Lisbon-Mount Vernon Ambulance Service. "I really enjoy emergency medicine," he says. "I like helping these guys out."

He officiated 50 football games, 75 baseball games and more than 100 wrestling matches.

He sent more than 10,000 tweets on Twitter ("I have no life," he jokes) and wrote plenty of blog posts and posted videos on YouTube.

Oh yeah, and Mike runs. He's approaching 350 miles so far this year as he trains for the Hawkeye 50K around Lake Macbride on March 17 and the Ice Age Trail 50-mile run in Wisconsin on May 12. He completed a 5K earlier this year after jogging five miles to warm up.

"I've got an addictive personality," Mike laughs. "When I do something, I do it."