Before Aaron Rigby embarked on a career as a transactional lawyer in the Dallas office of Sidley Austin, he had a front-row seat to history when he served for five years as surface warfare officer in the U.S. Navy.

After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1998, Rigby was on a ship near the Seychelles Islands when he acted as the security team leader sent to help the USS Cole in 2000 after the guided-missile destroyer was attacked by an Al-Qaeda suicide boat, killing 17 U.S. sailors.