Mr. Jay Emberton was born and raised in Indiana before enlisting in the US military after high school. His 30 years of military service includes an enlistment in the US Navy (including deploying aboard an aircraft carrier during Operation Desert Storm), several years in the Indiana National Guard (during which he graduated Officer Candidate School), active duty Army enlistment as a heavy wheeled vehicle operator (including assignments to Special Forces units at Fort Bragg, NC and an assignment as the personal security detachment driver for a general officer during the invasion of Iraq in 2003), and assignments as a Military Intelligence officer in the Army Reserves and on active duty (including a job as the intelligence officer for an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Battalion in Afghanistan and a company commander in the 10th Mountain Division Headquarters at Fort Drum, NY). His final military assignment sent him to Johnson City, TN, as the Associate Professor of Military Science at East Tennessee State University (ETSU).

Soon after his military retirement in 2016, Mr. Emberton was hired as a government contractor, which has allowed him to continue serving as a Military Science instructor in the ROTC department of ETSU since 2018. He is the faculty advisor to the ETSU color guard and drill team. He also founded the ETSU cannon team and serves as the faculty advisor and sponsor.

Mr. Emberton is married to Suzanne Emberton. They have six adult children, four of whom graduated from ETSU, UT
Chattanooga, or Middle Tennessee State University. His hobbies include woodworking, scale model building, classic car restoration, and motorcycling.