I am a retired U.S. Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician, living in Florida. I joined the Navy right out of high school in 1971, was sent to Orlando for recruit training, and then to Jacksonville, Florida for Aviation Ordnance School. Once I completed training, I was sent to Vietnam - actually, it was the Gulf of Tonkin; I never stepped foot in country - via Subic Bay, RP. I spent ten days aboard the USS Misspillion, AO-105, acting as a deckhand, before being transferred to the Coral Sea, CVA-43.

For the next three years, I worked in the bomb assembly section, the magazine section, and the flight deck section (which I liked the best). After three Western Pacific cruises, during which I visited Japan, Phillippines, Singapore, Guam, Hong Kong, and Australia, I mustered out and joined the civilian world.

My aspirations were to work in the field of my hobby: motorcycles, which I did for a couple of years, before the economy caused me to re-evaluate my long-term goals (survival). I re-enlisted and moved back to Jacksonville, Florida to work on A-7 Corsair II jets. For the next six years I served in two squadrons - one on each coast - until I heard a higher calling: EOD.

In 1982 I tried out and was accepted for EOD training. For the next fouteen months, I went from San Francisco, to Huntsville, Alabama for chemical school. Then, to Panama City, Florida for dive school (schweeet!!). Finally, I ended up in Indian Head, Maryland, at the Naval School, Explosive Ordnance Disposal. It was there that I discovered that with the proper motivation, you can accomplish anything. Suffice it to say, EOD School was hard.

However, after successfully graduating, I was transferred to Hawaii. The next two years were some of the best of my life. I was thirty, in great physical shape, and doing the kinds of things others only dream about. I was diving some of the greatest sites in the Pacific; jumping out of airplanes (with a parachute, of course); and leaving smoking holes. During my time in Mobile Unit One, Det Thirteen, I learned something that has remained with me to this day: there are very few personal problems that cannot be solved with the proper application of large amounts of high explosives.

Next, I moved to Georgia, where I babysat Trident Submarines for four years. From there, I went to Charelston, South Carolina, and served in EOD Mobile Unit Six, Detachment Eight. In January of '91, my detachment was deployed  to Desert Shield/Storm. During those six months...well, a lot of what went on is described in my first novel: Critical Response. If you want to know more, it's there in Chapter One.

I retired from all the fun and frolick in 1993, and moved back to Florida, where I still live and write fiction. While I wait for my readers to make my latest work a New York Times Bestseller, I must continue to work a regular job. Being the EH&S Manager for a chemical company is satisfying work, but not like being a Navy Master EOD Tech.

Now, that was a BLAST!