I was born in Midland, Texas, the fifth generation of a pioneer West Texas ranching family. My family raised me with a great appreciation for the hard work, grit and sense of adventure and honor needed to settle a hard scrabble, wide open land. True stories of life and death in the face of overwhelming odds fascinated me from an early age. Along with that fascination, I developed a life-long passion for writing and art. The road I have traveled to become an historian, artist and published author has been an adventure in itself. I attended SMU in Dallas, earning degrees in history and law. After law school, I worked as an assistant district attorney in Texas, and later as an assistant attorney general in Kentucky, prosecuting the worst violent crimes. In 2000, I turned to the arts to honor and tell the story of those heroes that thrilled me when I was young. It was then that I designed and created the Kentucky Medal of Honor Memorial, a bronze statue of John Squires, a Kentucky recipient of the Medal of Honor in WWII. The statue stands in downtown Louisville and is a perpetual reminder of the sacrifices of heroes from Kentucky who have fought and often died for our freedom. In 2008, I designed and sculpted the Texas Medal of Honor Memorial, a statue of Midland native George O’Brien, who earned the Medal of Honor during the Korean War. This memorial, soon to be featured in the Texas Medal of Honor Museum in Gainesville, stands as a symbol of all Texans who have earned our nation’s highest award for combat valor. In 2007, inspired by the Stephen Ambrose book and HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, I wrote Lions of Medina , a book that tells the firsthand account and sacrifice of a company of Marines in the Vietnam War. First published by Coleche Press, and subsequently published by NAL Caliber Penguin in 2008. My second book, Swift Sword , published in 2014, chronicles the gut-wrenching story of a group of valiant Marines who endured horror in a firefight on a lone knoll in the Que Son Valley during the Vietnam War. Always seeking new and different outlets for my creative energies, my upcoming book, Benoist’s War , combines creative storytelling with historical fact.