Lieutenant Colonel (retired) Mike Pierce
Candidate for Congress – Illinois 11th District
LTC (retired) Mike Pierce, PhD is a resident of Naperville. He attended North Central College and went in to the Army, first as an enlisted soldier, and later on earned his commission in the Signal Corps, after completing Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia in April 1994.
After 20 serving years, he retired from the Army in 2012 and continued to work at U.S. European Command and U.S. AFRICOM as a DOD Contractor in exercise planning, assessment, and functional analysis of critical infrastructure.
Due to Administrative errors by the Army, LTC (ret) Pierce was denied promotion until the Spring of 2025. After nearly 15 years of fighting the bureaucracy, he was finally, officially promoted. It was this fight against the bureaucracy that finally catalyzed his decision to run for Office and take up the fight for others whose dreams have been overrun by the faceless, unaccountable government machine.
Growing up in the Elgin area, Mike moved at least six times in the span of only a few years. He attended Ellis Junior High. He learned the value of work by delivering newspapers in the different neighborhood where he lived. He was an official member of the Chicago Tribune Frost Squad that survived the blizzard of ’79. Moving once again, he attended Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High school, where he also ran cross country and track, while also being active in music and acting. A day after Mike graduated from high school his parents moved to Florida. His step dad gave him $20 and said, “You’ll be getting a paycheck soon…” He spent the Summer washing cars at a nearby automobile dealership and in the Fall began attending North Central College.
Mike has a broad background and experiences from many points of view. While attending North Central College, he ran cross country and track, and was in several college theater productions. He served as a youth director, camp counselor, and spent weekends and summers participating in musical ministry in Wisconsin and Northern Illinois Methodist Churches. In 1985 he went to Nicaragua- not as a soldier, but as part of a missionary outreach with the Peace with Justice Task of the United Methodist Church. This helped shape his vision of working to bring people together in meaningful ways and moving forwards instead of looking backwards.
After college graduation, Mike worked at the The Athlete’s Foot Weartest Center, where he was mentored by renowned footwear expert, Tom Brunick. Inspired by his Coaches, Al Carius, Ken Popejoy, and Frank Gramaroso, he started coaching and was the assistant coach for UIC Men’s, and head women’s coach for cross country in the Fall of 1991. In the Spring of 1992 He became the head track and field coach at the Illinois Math and Science Academy. Realizing that all of these positions were helping him to develop his leadership skills, Mike joined the Army as a Chaplain Assistant and attended Basic Training at Fort Knox Kentucky in August of 1992. While at Fort Monmouth, home of the Chaplain School, Mike also volunteered as a coach for the U.S. Army Prep School. Additionally, as a young enlisted soldier, Mike took charge of the school’s first Army Ten Miler and Marine Corps Marathon teams, training soldiers, NCOs, and Officers senior to him in rank. Soon afterwards he was accepted to Officer Candidate school at Fort Benning, Georgia. In January of 1994 he attended Officer Candidate school, and was commissioned in to the Signal Corps in April. Following the Signal Officer’s Course and Airborne school, Mike was assigned as a platoon leader in the 67th Signal Battalion.
Following his assignment to Fort Gordon, Mike was sent to Germany, where he held multiple company commands, was an observer controller at the Combat Maneuver Training Center. He then moved on to US Army Europe headquarters, where he was personally selected to be the Executive Officer to MG David Zabecki, Deputy Chief of staff for Reserve and Mobilization. During this time he also served as the action officer for the U.S. Army’s 60th Anniversary of the end of World War II Commemorations in Italy and the Czech Republic. MG Zabecki, also one of the most senior historians in the Army, directed Mike to catalog interviews of soldiers who had participated in campaigns during the war, and particularly the Normandy Invasion, Operation Overlord. Inspired by these accounts, he used these as an integral part of his dissertation later on when he earned his Doctorate in Organizational Leadership.
Mike led and planned training for both exercises and operational deployments ranging from the Balkans to Afghanistan, and Iraq while workingas an Observer Controller in Hohenfels, Germany. His first deployment was in support of the Kosovo campaign, where he deployed briefly to Hungary, as well as parts of Bosnia and Croatia. His most lengthy combat deployment was to Iraq from July 2008 through October 2009, where he was in charge of Signal Operations for the 16th Sustainment Brigade.
While on Active Duty, Mike worked in many other countries in Europe in support of training exercises, where he had opportunity to meet and hold presentations with many senior military and governmental officials. In 2004 he earned his Masters in Human Relations, and followed it up with a PhD in Organizational Leadership in 2010, all done while serving on challenging military assignments.
Mike was awarded the Kosovo Campaign medal, the NATO medal, and the Operation Iraqi Freedom campaign medal. Additionally, he received many other awards including three awards of the Meritorious Service Medal and the Joint Meritorious Service Medal.
Mike is a Service Disabled Veteran and has worked diligently for Veterans causes. Remembering his work as young counselor at church camps and day camps across Northern Illinois, Mike decided to found an organization to help Veterans and their families in transition. Using his own resources, Mike founded both a non-profit organization, and a for profit corporation, and pledged use of land he acquired near Fort Gordon, Georgia when he was stationed there, to set up a transitional program. Though in its infancy, Mike’s concept of a combined 501c3 and private partnership corporation that would earn its funds through training and contracts to pay for a retreat center to help Veterans in transition through a holistic, physical/spiritual/ professional development approach has had much positive feedback. Mike’s life goal is to someday see his Veterans retreat center pave the way for “New Horizons for Heroes” - America’s Veterans.
Mike is a life member of the American Legion and the VFW, the National Rifle Association, the Signal Corps Regiment Association, Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association and the Association of the United States Army. He has volunteered in his community as president of the several chapters of the Association of the United States Army, and has served as vice president for the AUSA European Region. He has served the community and advocated for critical Service member and Veterans issues at the local and national levels, proposing legislative initiatives AUSA leaders presented to Congress.
Having a great passion for history, Mike organized and conducted historical staff rides for scouts, soldiers, civilians, and ROTC cadets to the Beaches and towns of Normandy to teach them about the D-Day Invasion, which he studied extensively and wrote drawing on his material from his dissertation and book, The Overlord Effect- Emergent Leadership During Crisis.
Mike and his wife, Beatrix, have been married since 2004. He is the proud father of four children: his oldest daughter is a speech therapist and special education teacher. His son is a Captain in the Army, currently stationed at Fort Eisenhower, and was deployed to Kabul to assist in the evacuations in Kabul, Afghanistan. His younger daughter graduated from the University of Dubuque and resides in North Carolina. His youngest daughter is a Freshman in High School. He has three grandchildren.