Once his prayers were answered, Corporal Holt was weighed on the scales of combat in Baghdad and was found not wanting. He became a proselyte of Crom, filled with the zeal of the newly converted. He finished his BA, passed Officer Candidate School, recycled the Field Artillery Officer Basic Course, passed the second time, and joined the next unit that was headed to Afghanistan. He went from Fire Support officer to Executive Officer and briefly commanded D Co. 3/172 Infantry in RC East on the Pakistan border.

He volunteered to go back to Afghanistan as a Battalion Fires Officer, but his rough and intemperate nature got him sent to Kuwait instead. During that year in the desert prison that is Camp Arifjan he served as an Intelligence Officer and vowed never to return to Washington’s Military Department. Those involved with having his orders to Afghanistan rescinded die a gruesome, yet fictional, death in this tale. You know who you are, and that award you put yourselves in for is more fiction than this novel.

In 2014, Captain Holt transferred to 322 Civil Affairs Brigade in Honolulu. There he completed his MA in Military Affairs and Diplomacy at Hawaii Pacific University. Medically retired from the uniformed service in 2020, he remains a civilian analyst for US Army Pacific Command.

He resides in the beach community of Kailua with his wife Kanokthip Nilsri, the Sapphire of Siam. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Hawaii.

His hobbies include collecting Winston Churchill first editions, gunfire, and exploring the sea-faring travels of the Ancients.