Lieutenant Colonel Stolzenberg was born in Mississippi into a Marine Corps family and spent his childhood in Eastern North Carolina. Following in his father’s footsteps, he commissioned in the Marine Corps in 2005 from the Reserve Officer Training Corps at Purdue University with an aviation contract.
Following The Basic School in Oct 2006, Lieutenant Colonel Stolzenberg reported to flight school in Pensacola, FL for Aviation Preflight Indoctrination and then to Corpus Christi, Texas for both Primary and Advanced Multi-Engine flight training, earning his wings July 2, 2008.
Prior to joining his first squadron, Lieutenant Colonel Stolzenberg completed Survival Evasion Resistance Escape training in California, C-130J Maintenance and Aircrew Training System at Little Rock Air Force Base and top-off training in the KC-130J at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.
His first squadron tour began March 2009 with VMGR-252 where he served as the Flight Duty Officer, Aircrew Training Assistant, Detachment Airframes Division Officer, Marine Aircraft Group 12 KC-130J Subject Matter Expert and Transportation Liaison Officer, S-1 Officer in Charge (OIC), and Detachment Assistant Operations Officer. While in VMGR-252 he earned his Transport Plane Commander qualification and Basic Instructor Pilot. He deployed twice during this tour to Operation Iraqi Freedom 9.2 and with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit. He completed Expeditionary Warfare School non-resident during this time graduating with distinction.
Lieutenant Colonel Stolzenberg then accepted orders to VT-35 in Corpus Christi, Texas to become a multiengine instructor pilot from May 2012 to June 2015. While in VT-35 he flew the TC-12B Huron and gained all available instructor qualifications. He served as Ground Safety Officer, Flight Leader, and Assistant Operations Officer as well as serving as the Chief of Naval Aviation Training Multi-Engine Formation and Low-Level Standardization Instructor.
In fall of 2014 he was selected to Naval Post-Graduate School (NPS) in the Manpower Systems Analysis curriculum. From July 2015-July 2017 Lieutenant Colonel Stolzenberg completed the coursework and earned the outstanding thesis award prior to graduation in March 2017 while completing the Command and Staff non-resident curriculum.
Following graduation from NPS Lieutenant Colonel Stolzenberg reported to VMGR-152 in Iwakuni, Japan. There he held billets as the Assistant Aviation Maintenance Officer, Director of Safety and Standardization, and Operations Officer. He gained qualification as a Section Lead, Low Altitude Tactics Instructor, Assistant NATOPS Instructor, and Night Systems Instructor. Additionally, he attended Aviation Safety Officer School and earned his Crew Resource Management Instructor Qualification. He served as OIC for two detachments, Pitch Black at RAAF Tyndall, Australia and the Unit Level Training Detachment at MCAS Yuma.
After his tour in Japan Lieutenant Colonel Stolzenberg moved to the Washington D.C. area to begin work as the Aircrew Programs Officer for the Deputy Commandant of Aviation and then to Manpower and Reserve Affairs to work for the Deputy Commandant in Officer Plans as the Aviation Officer Planner managing all pilot MOS accession, production, promotion, and retention planning and later the Officer Plans Section Head.