I was raised in semi-rural Ohio. I had no connection to the military growing up. Indeed, where I lived only a vanishing few even considered military service. Twenty-eight years later I am still wearing the uniform. Along the way I picked up degrees, wrote a few books and several hundred professional and commercial articles, essays, and op-eds. Most of these dealt with strategic thought, international relations, military theory, history, or practice. But I have also written on topics as diverse as robotics, ethics, journalism mores, eco-system preservation, cyber-system developments, neurobiology, local history, sound, psychology, and sailing, among others. In short, the list is long. I also contributed to or co-wrote a baker's-dozen more books, mostly professional or academic reference works. My scribblings appear everywhere from MSNBC.com and Esquire.com to the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the LA Times, the Miami Herald, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and almost every single major professional military and historical journal extant. I have written speeches for four-star generals, ghost-written articles for other generals, and given voices to others who had no outlets of their own.I taught military history, strategy, strategic theory, and the evolution of land and maritime doctrine at some of the best schools in the world, West Point, Georgetown (grad school) and George Mason (up and coming). And given the era, I also served for years myself in places decidedly less comfortable; combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a few other nasty places. Thankfully I have seen much of the rest of the planet under more pleasing circumstances.