Overview
I'm an award-winning Department of the Army-designated, consultative military historian and author of the award winning A Dark and Bloody Ground – the Hürtgen Forest and Roer River Dams 1944-1945, now in its 5th printing at Texas A&M University Press.
History is more relevant than you may think. It makes sense to look at challenges faced by others. Why not use their experience to save time and money? My approach to historical analysis centers on understanding decision-making. What decision did people make and why; what was the outcome and what can we learn from their hard-bought experience? I can show you how.
AI, data science/literacy and quantum computing are among the drivers of modern society. They generate an extraordinary amount of revenue for those at the edge of development, delivery and adaptation. To manage this operating environment, innovative leaders employ personal and enterprise "mental agility".
Some people, especially those with a stake in today's data industry, proclaim, "It's all about the data." I argue that it is not. "It" is about the context and decisions made with the data. Consider the human terrain, too, where you must sift through the evidentiary landscape and then persuade others.
My work also includes advising the producers of the PBS series "History Detectives," and the PBS documentary "Salinger," appearing on the Fox News/Business Channel series War Stories with Oliver North and on WW2TV. The Center for Army Leadership used excerpts from A Dark and Bloody Ground for instructional purposes. I also have over 30 years' experience in designing and conducting experiential leader instruction (the military 'Staff Ride') programs and partnered with the award-winning military historian Steven Ossad to develop programs to help executives make better decisions.
My career as an Army logistician included years of service in Germany and at the Pentagon, where I worked on a hand-picked team reporting directly to the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans, and at the US Army Special Operations Agency. I advised a Presidentially appointed commission investigating a Korean War incident, the Presidential Commission on Holocaust Assets in the U.S. and a review of retroactive awards of the Medal of Honor to WWII African American and Asian American soldiers.
A Dark and Bloody Ground describes the price paid when senior leaders cannot visualize long term goals within a particularly difficult decision-making environment. Nothing Less Than Full Victory uses WWII small-unit combat case studies (such as D-Day, Metz, the Battle of the Bulge and Remagen) to describe how the U.S. Army transformed itself from a small constabulary to a global force in just 4 years. My upcoming (January 2026) Sixty-Six Hours to Manila is about the imprisonment and liberation of the largest group of U.S. citizens ever held captive outside the country.
NEWS:
My essay, "Generating and Sustaining US Combat Power in World War II" will appear in the upcoming second edition of World War Two Companion (published by Wiley). It addresses today's concerns with the "Defense Industrial Base" and global logistics in an era of peer competition. My newest book-length project studies the decision-making environment behind a dramatic 1945 US operation in Germany and its impact on the local civilian community.