Mark Venardi was born in 1962 in Seattle, Washington. He was raised in Peoria, IL, a Midwest blue collar town. He enlisted in the United States Coast Guard and proudly served from 1980 through 1985. He spent the first two years on a sea going tug performing search and rescue and marine law enforcement from the Grand Banks to the Windward Passage aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Tamaroa, which was the Coast Guard vessel that performed the rescue in “The Perfect Storm.”