Retired Coast Guard commander guides NFL employer in community service, honoring veterans.
As a young boy growing up in Seattle, Mike Flood watched his grandfather, George Edward Flood – World War I veteran and Legionnaire – lead the city’s Fourth of July parade wearing a top hat. Seven decades later, Flood – now a retired Coast Guard commander and Seattle Seahawks’ vice president for outreach and external affairs – was in a parade on the same streets, atop military vehicles, celebrating the 2026 Seattle Seahawks' Super Bowl win with a million people.
The top hat was gone, but the thread connecting those two moments runs straight through a life devoted to service.
Three generations of the Flood family have served their country and participated in The American Legion. His father served in the Marine Corps, was a Silver Star and Bronze Star recipient in the Korean War, and retired as a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve. "He appreciated the Legion too,” Flood said. “I've still got his Legion hat at home.”
Flood spent 22 years in the Coast Guard, retiring as a commander in 1996 after flying the C-130, Dassault Falcon 20 and HH-60J Jayhawk, and directing search and rescue operations. The pivot from uniform to NFL front office came through an unlikely but fitting connection. Flood had known Paul Allen – co-founder of Microsoft – since their days together at Washington State University. Allen was a reserved computer science student, Flood the fraternal house's social chairman and de facto connector. When Allen acquired the Seahawks in the mid-1990s and needed someone to lead a statewide campaign for a new stadium, he contacted Flood on the last day of active duty.
"I was coming in from my last flight," he recalled. "I got a note from Paul Allen's office to call him. He said, 'I'm thinking about buying the Seahawks. Do you want to work on the campaign?' So that's how it started.” That campaign to build a new stadium succeeded, and what is now called Lumen Field was built. Flood subsequently joined the Seahawks organization at Allen’s behest and got to work.
"When I got to the Seahawks in 1997, they only had a few departments set up,” he said. He implemented military order and organization, started the team's IT department, launched seahawks.com, founded the Blue Thunder drum line and built the community relations program from scratch. Suffice it to say, he’s been an enduring figure in the franchise's history.
Flood’s connection to the military never left him. Working as military liaison manager, his department developed the Task Force 12 coalition in November 2020; “With six major military installations within 60 miles of Lumen Field, the Seattle Seahawks and 12 local grassroots military nonprofit organizations join forces to create a family of support for our military servicemembers, veterans and their families,” according to seahawks.com.
The idea came from Nino Gray, an Army combat veteran and Seahawks community engagement manager. The premise was simple: the team provided the platform and the nonprofits provided the life-changing work. "We'd say they've saved lives," Flood said. "We just put them together and help them out. But they do the life-saving.” The task force includes Brigadoon Service Dogs, Growing Veterans, Minority Veterans of America, NineLine Veteran Services and Gold Star Families of Washington, among other Pacific Northwest-based veteran nonprofits. Task Force 12 organizations sell 50-50 raffle tickets at games, raising funds while staying connected to the community they serve.
But Flood has always believed the Seahawks' most powerful asset isn't the fundraising but the platform itself. With 68,000 fans in the seats and a national broadcast audience, a halftime moment can do something a community event cannot: make thousands or even millions bear witness. On the field, the franchise has honored groups who fought for America but came home to a complicated welcome, including Chinese-American WWII veterans, whose legacy is personal for Flood. Cathay Post 186, where Flood is an active member, was founded in 1946 by Chinese-American veterans during a time of racial discrimination. Honoring those men at midfield, in front of thousands of people, closed a long-overdue circle. The franchise has extended that recognition to Japanese-American Nisei veterans and Filipino-American veterans who waited decades for their Congressional Gold Medals, as well. "We only have a few minutes," he said, "but if you can tell that story, and show people who survived all those things, standing on the field – with 68,000 people watching – that matters.”
American Legion Department of Washington Commander Al Jensen sees the broader significance of that model. "Under the umbrella of one of the most popular teams in the NFL – and now world champions – it's a good way for us to get our message out," he said. "The Seahawks have always gone one step further than most.”
Current head coach Mike Macdonald, whose father graduated from West Point, has deepened that culture further. Flood described a coach who canceled practice to take the entire team to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, brought the Blue Angels in to speak to players and built a philosophy around what he calls "chasing edges" – finding every small improvement through the same kind of rigorous mission analysis the military uses. That's where “chasing edges” comes from, according to Flood: "Don't disregard it, grab it."
It is, in many ways, the same philosophy Flood has applied to his own nearly three decades with the franchise. Jensen has watched that commitment from the outside and put it simply: "Without people like Mike, we would never have had those inroads. He's just so dedicated to both the Seahawks and his service to the veteran community.” Flood watches all of this and sees the thread his grandfather started, still running forward. "The opportunity to do something for somebody every day – that doesn't change," he said. "That's pretty similar to where it was the first day I got here."
Alyson Teeter is a member of Cathay Post 186 in Seattle.
- Honor & Remembrance