Darrell Issa
Military career and personal life
Issa dropped out of high school, and on his 17th birthday he enlisted for three years in the Army.[5][6] He became an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) technician, trained to defuse bombs, having been inspired by a movie about such soldiers during World War II. He claimed his unit provided security for President Richard Nixon, sweeping stadiums for bombs prior to games in the 1971 World Series, and that he received the highest approval ratings during his service.[7] However, a 1998 investigation by the San Francisco Examiner found these claims were not true, since Nixon had not attended any of that year's World Series games. The investigation also discovered that Issa was actually transferred to a supply depot after he received an unsatisfactory evaluation. According to Issa, the Examiner reporter had misunderstood an anecdote he had related.[5] A fellow soldier, Jay Bergey, claimed that Issa stole his Dodge Charger in 1971, when they were serving together. The day after he confronted Issa, the car was found abandoned on a nearby expressway. Asked about this in 2011, Issa denied it and suggested it was possible that other soldiers stole the car or that Bergey, who he claims had a drinking problem, had abandoned it himself while intoxicated."[5]
After receiving a hardship discharge in 1972, following his father's heart attack, Issa earned his General Educational Development (GED) certificate and began taking classes at Siena Heights University, a small Catholic college in Adrian, Michigan. He continued his military service by joining in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC)."[5] Twice that year he was arrested. In the first incident he was indicted by a grand jury for an alleged theft of a Maserati, but prosecutors dropped the charge shortly thereafter.[8] In the second incident, he was stopped for driving the wrong way on a one-way street, and a police officer noticed a firearm in his glove compartment. Issa was charged with carrying a concealed weapon; he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of possession of an unregistered firearm, and was sentenced to six months' probation and a small fine.[5][8] Issa has said he believes the record has since been expunged.[5]
Issa graduated and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He served in a non-combat administrative capacity from 1976 to 1980.[9][10] In September 1980, while deployed with the 1/77th Armor at Fort Ord, he received high marks on a routine evaluation. Lt. Col. Wesley Clark stated, "This officer's performance far exceeded that of any other reserve officer who has worked in the battalion." The standardized report also stated that Issa had "unlimited potential" with a note to "promote ahead of [his] contemporaries."[5]
Business career
After leaving the military, Issa and his second wife, Kathy Stanton, moved back to the Cleveland area, pooled their savings, sold their cars and borrowed $50,000 from his family to invest in Quantum Enterprises, an electronics manufacturer run by a friend from Cleveland Heights that assembled bug zappers, CB radio parts and other consumer products for other companies. One of those clients, car alarm manufacturer Steal Stopper, would become the path to Issa's fortune. It was struggling badly, and he took control of it by foreclosing a $60,000 loan he had made to it when its founder, Joey Adkins, missed a payment. Adkins remained as an employee.[5]
Issa soon turned Steal Stopper around, to the point that it was supplying Ford with thousands of car alarms and negotiating a similar deal with Toyota. But early in the morning of September 7, 1982, the offices and factory of Quantum and Steal Stopper in the Cleveland suburb of Maple Heights, caught fire. The fire took three hours to put out; the buildings and almost all inventory within were destroyed.[5]
Move to California
Steal Stopper soon regained its previous prosperity. Car theft rose in the United States during the 1980s, and with it the demand for security devices. Rolls Royce, BMW and General Motors joined Ford and Toyota as customers. In 1985 Issa sold the company to a California-based maker of home alarms, and moved to the San Diego suburb of Vista, where he has lived ever since, to work for it. Shortly afterward he left to start Directed Electronics, Inc. (DEI).[5]
He recorded the "Please step away from the car", warning for DEI's signature product, the Viper car alarm.[11] Sales grew from a million dollars its first year to $14 million by 1989.[5] DEI diversified, and eventually became one of the largest makers of aftermarket electronic automotive accessories in the U.S. As of 2004, Directed Electronics was North America's largest aftermarket automotive electronics manufacturer. Issa divested personal interest in Directed Electronics after being elected to public office.
From his involvement in consumer-electronics trade organizations, he began to get politically active. He went to Washington to lobby Congress and became one of California's largest individual campaign contributors to Republican candidates. In 1996 he backed the successful campaign to pass Proposition 209, a ballot initiative which prohibitted public institutions in California from considering race, sex, or ethnicity. He was instrumental in persuading the national Republican Party to hold its 1996 convention in San Diego.[5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darrell_Issa
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