Behind every successful person or program there are individuals who usually don’t get the attention or respect they deserve. When we loose people like that it is very very hard to swallow. The national wildland firefighter academy & the wildland fire training center at McClellan were blessed to have Mike Laxo on site for many years. From the fire academies to the cutting edge one of a kind aviation flight simulator that helps train our troops and pilots from all over the world. Mike was always the behind the scenes go-to guy! He was one of the few that made going to work in a building with no windows something i looked forward to. I hope we can spread this word because so many knew him and will want to know. RIP & Godspeed my friend…
Just one component of Mike’s contributions was his years of commitment to keeping the aviation simulatiors up and running for thousands of interagency aviators. Thanks Mike for everything!
Please keep us updated on the celebration of life. Going miss that guy.
There was this one time at the Wildland Firefighter Training Center / Camp…
Mike Laxo might or might not have given me a ride (as if aliens were chasing us) around the base in some sort of cutting edge electric vehicle that went way too fast for those tight streets on base. It was some sort of Batman meets F1 thing without any skin. It was just tubing/frame, suspension, steering wheel, tires/wheels and a couple pedals! And it may/may not have had all sorts of private tech going on especially in the propulsion / battery department that nobody is supposed to talk about. The point here is that its a damn fact Mike could have been a winning nascar street course racer based on what i observed first hand. Ive watched a lot of nascar races, gone real real fast on a street bike BUT ive never gone so fast in such a short amount of time & distance! That rascal was a wheel man, a simulator savant and a Marine! He sure was such a treat to work with and listen to. We always talked family & conspiracies/truth’s!