Michael Lee Lanning, a graduate of Texas A&M, served more than twenty years in the U.S. Army, retiring as a lieutenant colonel with the Senior Parachute Badge, Combat Infantryman's Badge, Ranger Tab, and Bronze Star. In Vietnam he commanded an infantry platoon, a recon platoon, and a rifle company. His military career included service as public-affairs officer for Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf and Department of Defense public affairs work. He has appeared on NPR, CBS, and the History Channel and has written twenty-five books, with more than a million copies of his books in print in fifteen countries and twelve languages. His previous books include the classic Vietnam, 1969-1970: A Company Commander's Journal (Ivy Books, 1987; Ballantine, 1988; Texas A&M, 2007), which the New York Times called "one of the most honest and horrifying accounts of a combat soldier's life to come out of the Vietnam War." With Stackpole, he has published Tours of Duty: Vietnam War Stories (2014), reprinted Inside Force Recon: Recon Marines in Vietnam (2017), and written The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson (Spring 2020). A native of Texas, Lanning lives in Lampasas, Texas, not far west of Fort Hood.