Mackenzie graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1994 with a B.S. in English. He isw a naval aviator who flies the Seahawk helicopter. He has been on numerous deployments with the U.S. Navy, everywhere from the Caribbean to the Gulf of Alaska and from the Eastern Pacific to the Persian Gulf. While teaching English literature and writing at the Naval Academy, he earned his M.A. in liberal arts from St. John's College in Annapolis.