Michael Lee Lanning, who graduated from Texas A&M, served more than twenty years in the U. S. Army, retiring as a lieutenant colonel with the Senior Parachute Badge, Combat Infantryman's Badge, Ranger Tab, and Bronze Star. In Vietnam he commanded an infantry platoon, a recon platoon, and a rifle company. His military career included service as public-affairs officer for Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf and similar work in the Department of Defense Public Affairs office. He has spoken at conferences on the African-American Soldier at the D-Day Museum and Tuskegee University and has appeared on NPR, CBS, and the History Channel.
He has written twenty-four nonfiction books on military history, sports, and health, with more than 1. 1 million copies of his books in print in fifteen countries and twelve languages. His previous books include the classic Vietnam, 1969-1970: A Company Commander's Journal, which the New York Times called "one of the most honest and horrifying accounts of a combat soldier's life to come out of the Vietnam War."
A native of Texas, Lanning lives in Lampasas, Texas, just west of Fort Hood.
