Dr. Mike Mahoney is a board-certified family medicine physician who completed his residency at the LaCrosse-Mayo Family Medicine Residency in 2002. A graduate of Dartmouth Medical School and Harvard University, Mike is also a US Army veteran with combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. Mike was a member of the US Army 3rd and 4th Infantry Divisions and Special Forces. He served as a Special Forces Medical Sergeant in the 5th Special Forces Group and later as Assistant Battalion Surgeon in the 1st Bn. and 2nd Bn., of the 20th Special Forces Group. Most recently, Mike returned from a year in Iraq as Medical Officer for a company providing security to US Diplomats through the High Threat Security Program.

Mike has extensive knowledge of the US Airborne operations and battles in and around the 82nd and 101st Airborne drop zones in Normandy. He has also studied the medical practices and procedures developed by the military for airborne operations and put to the test throughout the Normandy countryside in June and July 1944.

Mike serves as the Normandy Drop Zone Tours medic and lends his combat expertise and knowledge to the immersion experience.

Michael L. Mahoney, M.D.
Medic and Battlefield Historian

John Brueck is the founder of Normandy Drop Zone Tours. John possesses 35 years experience and knowledge of the Normandy invasion with an emphasis on the US Airborne Operations of June 5 and 6, 1944, as well as the German defenses leading up to and just after the invasion. A recognized educator on the topic, John has lectured on topics specific to the Airborne landings in the 101st Airborne drop zones in Normandy and has also been the focus of multiple published articles.

John currently works at the University of Missouri supporting entrepreneurs and small business growth. With this entrepreneurial expertise, knowledge and experience, John has assembled a professional team of historians and battlefield guides well-versed in the events surrounding the Airborne operations on D-Day and the subsequent battles in and around the Cotentin Peninsula. The NDZT team has a collective knowledge base spanning 115 years of D-Day Airborne knowledge. Members of the team have made more than 100 trips to the region. John has ensured that participants will be fully engaged, educated and immersed into the paratrooper experience of June and July 1944 in Normandy.

During his numerous trips to the towns and villages within the Utah Beach sector, John has fostered many relationships with key French citizens who witnessed the events in the late evening hours of June 5 and early morning hours of June 6, 1944. These witnesses assisted the paratroopers in the pursuit of their goals on D-Day. John, through his network of eyewitnesses and extensive knowledge and understanding of the battlefields, will assist NDZT in delivering the first-person accounts that are crucial in ensuring that the sacrifices, courage and selflessness offered by our brave heroes from yesterday are never forgotten.
John K. Brueck Jr.
Founder and Battlefield Historian

Tommy McArdle has 22 years experience as a police officer in northern New Jersey and more than 40 years experience and knowledge related to the Normandy Invasion and the Airborne operations of the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions in Normandy, Belgium and Holland. An accomplished historian and Normandy battlefield guide, Tommy has taken his knowledge and desire to educate to the classroom where he has lectured at the United States Military Academy at West Point on the battle of Neuville au Plain. A paratrooper of an Airborne Long Range Surveillance Unit of the US Army, Tommy has also served in the 7th Special Forces Group, the 4th Infantry Division, the 1st Infantry Division and New Jersey National Guard.

Tommy has family ties to the Airborne operations of June 5 and 6, 1944 and The Battle of the Bulge. One family member fought and died as a member of the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment (GIR) of the 82nd Airborne Division in Normandy. He is buried at the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, Omaha Beach. A second family member assigned to the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, and was killed during fighting in Bastogne, Belgium.

Tommy will use his experience and knowledge of the small unit tactics and engagements that occurred all over the battlefields and drop zones of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions to offer an incomparable element of realism, remembrance, education and immersion.

Thomas McArdle
Battlefield Historian

David Hanley is an attorney who practices corporate and estate planning law in South Florida. A graduate of Stetson University College of Law, David obtained his BA in History from the University of Florida.

David possesses 30 years' experience and knowledge on World War II history with an emphasis on the Invasion of Normandy. With multiple trips to the battlefields of Normandy, David is well-positioned to offer an unsurpassed immersion experience.

David's interest in the battlefields of France and World War II is deep-rooted. In World War I, David's grandfather served as a Captain in the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe. During World War II, David's grandfather operated a flight school located in Ocala, Florida, which was on contract to the Army Air Forces Flying Training Command to provide primary flight instruction to the military. David's father served as a ground instructor at the school.

David, along with the other members of the Normandy Drop Zone Tours team, offers knowledge, education and that all-important immersive experience of what it was like to walk, patrol, and survive in the Normandy countryside during the summer of 1944.
David F. Hanley
Co-Founder and Battlefield Historian