About the Author

Author was raised on a hillside farm in West Virginia. He had his first paid job at the age of seven, riding ancient horses engaged in pulling hay shocks from meadow to stacking point He worked on his parents' farm and on neighbors' farms until he enlisted in the Navy at seventeen. He was double-hatted in his last Navy billet as Command Master Chief of the United States Sixth Fleet and Assistant Communications Readiness Officer. He shipped as Radio Electronics Officer in the United States Merchant Marine after retiring from the Navy. He is married to the former Agueda Caceres Perez of Madrid, Spain. They have five children.