Tony Tinderholt entered active duty Air Force as a Spanish Cryptologic Linguist, taking part in counter drug missions across South and Central America. He re-entered active duty in January 2002 after the events of Sept. 11th, 2001. Major Tinderholt ran operations for the largest recruiting battalion in the U.S. Army Recruiting Command. He later volunteered to deploy to a combat zone and served in Iraq training an Iraqi Special Forces battalion.

In civilian live, Tony has been a professor of Spanish at Columbia College in Fort Worth and currently serves as Director of Training & Recruiting for Eliot Management Group, LLC.