Tom Neven served seven years in the Marine Corps as an M-60 machine-gunner and as an embassy guard in Africa and Europe. He has written for many publications, including Marine Corps Gazette, Leatherneck, The Washington Post, The Denver Post, and Rocky Mountain News. He spent 14 years in the History & Research Office at U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa, researching, writing, and editing studies and reports on a broad array of special operations topics.