While I was growing up in rural Maine and what was then rural south Florida along the edge of the Everglades, two separate English teachers of mine decided to show up at my house on two different occasions after school had let out for the day. Each told my parents that they should steer me toward writing because I had shown promise in that field -- and apparently nowhere else. I proved them wrong by becoming not only a writer but a Marine staff noncommissioned officer. Still, I never expected to go as far as I have with my writing. I am told that I am the most published Marine in history, with approaching 20 books in print and thousands of magazine and newspaper articles and columns that have appeared in such magazines as Field & Stream, Sports Afield, Salt Water Sportsman, Fly Fishing in Salt Waters, Rescue, the Marine Corps Gazette, Soldier of Fortune [I was recently hired as SOF's contributing editor for Gulf War Veterans Affairs], American Survival Guide, and Sport Fishing, to name a few.
It was after the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Maine at Orono asked me to peddle my wares elsewhere -- preferably somewhere in the taiga, or perhaps Burundi -- because I was a "disrupting influence," that I decided I needed some discipline and elected to join the Marine Corps, signing up for the grunts in what I was told was an outfit that could certainly aid me in my quest for discipline. They didn't let me down. I soon found my way into the Corps' fabled reconnaissance or recon community, and since that day back in the '70s, I have served in assorted billets around the world, having completed tours as a SERE (Survival, Escape, Resistance, Evasion) instructor at the Navy SERE School in Maine (where I also served as an advanced SERE instructor, NCOIC of the Tropical Environment Survival Training or TEST Course on the island of Antigua, and NCOIC of the SERE Instructor Under Training Branch), water safety and survival instructor (WSSI) in San Diego, infantry weapons platoon sergeant, recon team leader and recon company training NCO, and several other billets. Currently, I teach the Warfighting Package at the Staff Noncommissioned Officer Academy's advanced course aboard Camp Geiger in North Carolina. I will retire from the Corps soon and will be annoying people as an editor at Paladin Press shortly thereafter.
Most of my other books -- besides those published by Paladin -- are fishing, hunting, and fieldcraft books by various publishers. In addition to fishing (especially fly fishing with outrageously expensive tackle) and hunting, I enjoy teaching outdoor skills to those who want to learn how to get around and stay out of trouble in the woods. When I occupy my next position in Colorado, I will be starting a survival course for families. The course will teach one family at a time how to better enjoy their time in the outdoors by staying out of harm's way and, failing that, how to get out of the situation safely.
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Biography from the archived Paladin Press catalog.
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