John was born into a family well-established in the Federation. His mother, Laura Van Hofner, came from a wealthy family managing a merchant company officially outside the Federation. Despite this, the company still helped in managing many outlying Federation colonies. The company's CEO, Charles Van Hofner, Laura's father, John's grandfather, was a close friend with President Jerico. Charles had actually been in Starfleet when he was young, serving aboard nearly a dozen ships and starbases before turning in his commission at the rank of Lieutenant Commander in order to take over as CEO from his aging father, Richard Van Hofner. Richard had been the driving force behind the founding of the company. After growing up on a remote colony he had felt the need to explore. Starfleet had been absolutely prefect for him. He had spent nearly three years preparing for the initial academy tests for candidates. Later on, it would be his great grandfather's determination that would motivate John to join. After the Academy, Richard went on to become the model Starfleet officer, captain, and then even admiral. His great grandfather had even been present at the Khitomer Peace Accords to assist in the founding of a treaty between the Federation and Klingon empire. It was then he decided to leave Starfleet and return home to his family. But, growing restless, he decided to begin the family business. John's grandmother was from the same remote colony his great grandfather was from. And it was accidental she met his grandfather. Her name was Susan and like so many in the family, she had been in Starfleet, but as a scientist. She was a key part in many of the first contact relations with many species, recommending it when she believed necessary and often times helping to carry it out.

  John's father, Alan McMinn, was ALSO in Starfleet like those on John's mother's side. Alan had come from a scientific family, though. Both of his parents, Linda and Tom McMinn, had been important nuclear fusion scientists. Often they would work with Starfleet, but purely for the exchange of information. Alan grew up in space, bouncing around from ship to ship to starbase to starbase while his parents busily studied what Alan considered "stupid stars." But, so used to space, Alan decided to join Starfleet to remain in it. This goal, it seemed, he failed to accomplish because straight out of the Academy he was put on a planet. Lucky for John, Alan met his wife.

  5 years later, the now married Alan and Laura McMinn had their first child, John Arthur McMinn. John became the oldest of three children. His two other siblings were Tina and Samantha, twins. John's father hoped that he, a lowly Lieutenant, would not be transferred, but 6 months after the twins were born, when John was 4, Alan was transferred to the USS Greenwhich, a mammoth Excelsior-class starship used for deep-space assignments. Luckily, there was enough room for his family to join him. Alan still feared John and his two other children would grow up like him. Luck stayed with him. When John was 9, his father recieved the position as first officer aboard the USS Grisham. For once, they seemed to stay in one place. John was able to make friends, many were life-long that he still communicates with. Upsettingly, when John was 13 the Grisham was destroyed in a battle with revolting Klingon colonists attempting to gain their independence. The Grisham had been sent by the Federation as a show of good faith. Utopia Plantia shipyards had just begun construction of the newest class of ships, Galaxy. John's father was assigned command of one along with a large majority of the Grisham's crew. It was named the Grisham-A. Several years later, John found another friend that meant something to him. He was actually a member of the crew, an ensign named Tim Gillman. Tim was killed on away mission sacrificing himself to save the lives of the rest of the team as well as nearly three dozen innocent civilians. Tim was what convinced John to join.

  A year later, John bid farewell to his family and as he enrolled into the Academy. His freshman year academically was like any other cadet's. He had the usual required courses of everyone. The only one that proved to be difficult was the athletics course required of everyone, or else you didn't graduate. He barely avoided being noticed the first semester because of his struggling average. The second semester he decided to earn extra points any way possible. He found himself trying out for the Academy's baseball team. Despite the lack of interest in the sport in the 24th century, small crowds still showed up at games and even some practices. They maintained a perfect record throughout the season all the way up to the championship, where they lost to a Vulcan team.

The next year, John decided on an interesting Academic move. He did a double major in both Astronomy and also a special command course. As part of the command major he had to pick a certain ability to specialize in. John picked a piloting class. Little did he know how difficult it was. Somehow, though, he was able to scratch out an A- and make the special academy flight team. By his graduation, besides being a scientist, captain, and pitcher, he became a truely amazing pilot.

  With his unusual Academic choice, assignment processing had a dificult time deciding where to put him. This meant he remained Earthside on extended shoreleave and was forced to watch as many of his friends were being shipped out to the Cardassian border as relations were slowly falling apart while the Federation desperately tried to avoid war. Finally, John was given his initial assignment. Expecting to be heading into combat, John was instead sent into a scientific position, which turned out to be just as bad, unknown to him. It was an observatory nestled neatly in between a giant nova and two developing star systems. It was also FAR out of reach and with a compliment of only 18 people, to include John. Other than the supply ship that arrived once every three months, the closest anything ever came to the station was a miranda class vessel that came within 5 days of the station once every 2 months on it's patrol route. A year of that, and the most qualified medical officer on the station diagnosed him as psychologically ill and sent him back to Earth. After counseling, John was returned to society, but he still fears being alone to this day. As if what he needed, John was sent straight to the front lines of the escalating war with Cardassia. He was attached to a force VERY quickly dropped into a Federation colony under Cardassian siege. Due to disorganization he served two roles: fighter pilot and ground soldier. By the end of the war, he recieved several medals and had been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant before him and his friends recieved evac from the siege. He became helmsman of the USS Arkbishop, a nebula class starship. Then, he was moved to the USS Mendeleev as chief science officer before finally being given the role of first officer aboard the USS Springtree, a Sovereign class vessel. The Cortez is his first command.