After his departure from the show, Emerson enrolled in junior college and in 1993 transferred to Pepperdine University. There he met his Future wife, Emily Barth. The pair married after he dropped out to join the U.S. Air Force in 1996. As of 2002, he was a staff sergeant and was stationed at Holloman AFB in New Mexico. He earned a dozen awards for, among other accomplishments, planning missions during the 1999 Kosovo War. He left the Air Force in 2003, at which time he was living in Denver with his wife and their two daughters, Hayley and Hannah.
