Captain Michael H. Glaser, the son of Donald and Frances Glaser, is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio and is married to the former Jeanne M. Horan of Mountain View, Calif. They have three daughters: Katherine, Mary Frances and Elizabeth.

Commissioned in May of 1983 through the NROTC program at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Captain Glaser was designated a Naval Aviator in January 1985. His first assignment was to the USS OKINAWA (LPH 3) based out of San Diego, Calif. flying the UH-1N. Transitioning to the SH-3H and then the SH-60F/H, sea tours as a junior officer with the HS-2 "Golden Falcons" at NAS North Island and as a department head with the HS- 14 "Chargers" out of Atsugi, Japan followed. Having screened for command, he reported to the Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron SIX (HS-6) "Indians" in San Diego, Calif. as Executive Officer in July of 1999 and assumed command of the squadron in December 2000. During the squadron's deployment aboard the USS CARL VINSON (CVN 70) as part of Carrier Air Wing ELEVEN (CVW-11) they participated in the initial strikes of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM by providing Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) support for Coalition aircraft. During his tenure as Commanding Officer, HS-6 was recognized with the Navy Unit Commendation; the Navy Battle Efficiency Award as the best HS squadron in the Pacific Fleet; the Sikorsky Superior Maintenance Award; the Admiral Jimmy Thach Award for Tactical Excellence and the Commander, Pacific Fleet Retention Award for Fiscal Year 2002.

In May of 2002, Captain Glaser joined the crew of the USS NIMITZ (CVN 68) as the ship's navigator. During his two years onboard the NIMITZ, he contributed to her safely steaming over 100,000 nautical miles while supporting combat operations in Operation IRAQI FREEDOM and completing an eightmonth extended deployment.

Captain Glaser's shore tours include time as a junior officer detailer at the Bureau of Naval Personnel; as an instructor at the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center in Fallon, Nev.; as a student at both the Naval Command and Staff College and the National War College and as a member of the staff within the Office of the Secretary of Defense in the Pentagon. On June 29, 2007, Captain Glaser assumed command of Naval Air Station Fallon—the Navy's premier graduate-level aviation training facility. He currently resides in Fallon, Nev. with his family.

Captain Glaser has over 3,700 flight hours with 2,300 hours in the H-60F/H. His awards and decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal; Bronze Star; the Meritorious Service Medal; the Navy Commendation Medal; the Navy Achievement Medal as well as various other campaign and expeditionary medals.

Naval Air Station Fallon is known among the locales simply as 'the base,' and few are familiar with the airfield's real name or the man for whom the field is named after. In fact, the airfield represents a memorial to a WWII naval aviation hero and recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Lieutenant Commander Bruce Avery Van Voorhis, the airfield's namesake, was born in Aberdeen, Wash., on Jan. 29, 1908. Shortly thereafter he moved with his family to Fallon, Nev., where he spent his childhood. His father served as the Indian Service Representative at Stillwater. Van Voorhis attended school at the Oats Park Grade School and later graduated from Churchill County High School in 1924 where his classmates also knew him as "Clint."

He was a 1929 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and earned his pilot wings in 1931. Van Voorhis served with numerous aviation units stateside and overseas. He reported for duty to Bombing Squadron 102 as Plane Commander of a PB4Y-1 at the height of conflict in the Pacific during WWII.

Van Voorhis died on July 6, 1943 near Hare Island of the Kapingamarangi Atoll in the southernmost area of the Eastern Carolina Islands in the Western Pacific. After a 700-mile flight alone, he launched successive bombing and strafing attacks on Japanese ground installations, destroying a radio station, anti-aircraft emplacement and at least four enemy aircraft in the air and on the water in six successive ground level attacks. He was caught in his own bomb blast and crashed into a lagoon, ending his heroic, single-handed strike.

The Air Station was dedicated in his name on Nov. 1, 1959. At that time the 14,000- foot runway was one of the longest in the world and remains the longest in the Navy. In 1956, 13 years after Van Voorhis' death, a destroyer escort was launched bearing his name (DD-1028) from the shipyard in Camden, N.J. The ship was in service throughout the world for 17 years, including participation in the naval blockade of Cuba in 1962, before being decommissioned in 1972. In 1982, then Governor of Nevada Robert List, issued a proclamation designating May 31 as LCDR Bruce Avery Van Voorhis Day in the state of Nevada.

As the names of a new generation of heroes is written in the history books, Americans can look back gratefully at the heritage left by those who came before and know that this country is no stranger to the cost of freedom. The list of those willing to fight, and die, to pay that price is long and continues through every chapter of America's history. Among that list of names is Nevada's own LCDR Bruce Avery Van Voorhis.