Walter Grant became of age in the navy during the height of the cold war. He earned his aircrew wings as a radioman and radar operator aboard long range patrol aircraft tracking soviet submarines and trawlers lying offshore near Cape Canaveral during the space racesputnik was launched on his watch. He was schooled in atomic, biological, and chemical weapons, as well as antisubmarine warfare. His crew was selected to drop and test the first nuclear depth charge. He is one of only a handful of enlisted men to have flown Mach-2. Walter flew into Cuba before and after Castros overthrow of the Batista government which led him, sometime later, to read Tragic IslandHow communism came to Cuba, and in turn The Secret World of the KGBrequired reading for the CIA. His collection of books on the cold war is extensive. Walters military career took him to a dozen countries; his fascination with the cold war took him to more than twice that many. Two weeks after the Wall came down he passed through Brandenburg Gate into East Berlin and traveled extensively in the Eastern Bloca very sobering experience."