Brian McGough was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey and spent most of his childhood in either New Jersey or Pennsylvania. After graduating high school and a short stint at a local college Brian decided to join the Army for the discipline and experience. Brian was assigned to the 101^st Airborne (Air Assault) Division after graduating the top of his class in Fire Support Specialist AIT in 1995.

Brian’s military career started out very quietly in the relatively peaceful 1990s. That all changed in 1999 when Brian deployed to Kosovo with the 3 BDE (Rakkasans) of the 101^st. Soon after the attacks of September 11^th 2001, Brian was deployed to Afghanistan to take part in the initial operations in Afghanistan. Brian took part in all the offensive operations in 2001 and earned a Bronze Star Medal for his actions during Operation Anaconda. In 2003 Brian was deployed to Iraq where he took part in the initial invasion with the 101^st. Brian was injured by an IED in October 2003 and coalesced at Walter Reed until his retirement in 2005.

Brian is currently the Legislative Director for votevets.org and lives In the DC area with his wife Kayla Williams.