Russ was born in Jackson County, Kentucky in 1918. His 30-year military career began in 1942. By the time it was completed, he had participated in the Berlin Airlift; Flying the C-124 Globemaster for the Strategic Air Command, in a highly classified operation transporting nuclear weapons around the world. In 1964 he was named as Commander of the 57th Rescue Squadron based in the Azores and, while there, he received the Joint Services Commendation Medal from Admiral Thomas H. Moore, Commander of the Atlantic Fleet, in recognition of his work in search and rescue in the Atlantic. In 1967, he was promoted to Colonel and moved to Rescue and Recovery headquarters at Orlando, FL as Inspector General for the entire world-wide Rescue Service. He was also an Air Force advisor to the Recovery Division of NASA (Houston) on the old Gemini and Apollo space shots.