Volunteer Staff

Michael Harris born June 23rd 1952 in Texas, and at an early age the family migrated to the Central Valley of California.

A law enforcement career which spanned nearly 40 years both with the Madera County Sheriff’s department and the Fresno Police department led Mike to a life of service and additional military endeavors became a part of his life.

In 2004 he orchestrated an organization dubbed the Brotherhood of the Badge which was a joint Law Enforcement / Military Endeavor.

The operation partnered with the California Army National Guard to assist in the war efforts in Iraq. Realizing the Iraqi Army and Police forces were grossly under equipped the project set a goal of outfitting as many Iraqi soldiers and police that were working with American forces with protective safety equipment.

All across our nation donations of surplus body armor and related equipment poured in as a contribution to the project as well as nearly three million dollars in financial assistance.

The project was able to outfit 27,400 Iraqi’s and over 10,000 Afghan’s with safety equipment so as to get them better equipped and motivated towards fighting the terrorism in their respective countries. The project became an international success and was acknowledged on many fronts.

After retiring from Law Enforcement in 2011, Mike was brought on board with the Veterans Memorial Museum, the National museum representing the Legion of Valor of the United States as their Deputy Director.

Mike took on the role of political ambassador and fund raiser to enhance and upgrade the museum with continuing rotation of exhibits and technology to make patrons visits as interesting as possible and to keep the museum operating as a free admission venue.

With the passing away of then director Robert Specht in June of 2024 Mike was thrust into the leadership role or Director/CEO of the museum.

The continuing goal of making the museum one of the best military representations in the country never ends and the museum maintains a high quality caliber of staffing to make visitors welcome and so they may come away with a enlightened view of what our United States does to preserve freedom around the globe. This is Mike’s personal goal.