Mike Carey had just retired from the U.S. Air Force at the rank of brigadier general. He was picking out patio furniture for his home in Colorado Springs. Then he decided he wanted to return to his home state of Michigan.

“I walked by a little white board and someone had written on it, ‘Take a chance,’ or ‘Take a risk,’ something like that, and I said to [my wife,] Melody, ‘What do you think about living in Traverse City?’ and she stopped and turned around and said, ‘You mean to live?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ She said, ‘You don’t have to convince me.’”

Carey is far from the only recently retired high-ranking military officer to make the region his home. As Patrick Sullivan writes in this week's Northern Express - sister publication of The Ticker - there are at least three other generals who live in the area. Each one said that after a career of living in places around the world, the place they wanted to spend the rest of their lives was northern Michigan.

Retired U.S. Marine Corps Major General and Williamsburg resident Michael Lehnert agrees there’s an unusually high number of high-ranking officers in the area. “We do have a higher density of flag officers up here than you do in other places,” perhaps more than any other place outside of Washington D.C. or southern California. Lehnert says.

“I like this community, I love it. There’s just something special about it,” he says. “I think the reason it’s attracted so many (generals) is, first off, the quality of life. I’ve heard it said by the other flag officers, they like the people.”

Scott Dennis used to play football at Elk Rapids High School before he graduated in 1980. He went to Michigan Tech, and his family moved away. After a short stint in the private sector, Dennis joined the Air Force, going on to become a brigadier general and the commander of the 451st Air Expeditionary Wing and Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan, where he was responsible for nearly 26,000 personnel. When he retired in 2014, he decided he wanted to move back to his hometown permanently, and his wife, Debbie, an Oregon native, was happy to make it her adopted home.

“I grew up in the area and have very fond memories,” Dennis says. “We ended up kind of making a leap of faith and buying a house there on Elk Lake where I grew up.” Dennis adds that while the region has changed somewhat from 30 years, it still has the same charm he remembers growing up. “What’s the same to me is, it hasn’t grown like crazy, so there’s still a small-town feel; there’s a wonderful mix of the environment, nature, water," he says. 

Read more about northern Michigan's appeal to retiring high-ranking military officers in this week's Northern Express story, "Hooah! Hooya! Oorah! Hoorah!" This week's issue also features a fascinating history of military action in Grand Traverse Bay, a guide to the upcoming Cherry Festival concert schedule, and much more. The Northern Express is available to read online, or pick up a copy at one of nearly 700 other spots in 14 counties across northern Michigan.