about the author

  The author was stationed in South Vietnam for almost three years—from September 1966 through June 1969. While there he earned the rank of Staff Sergeant E-6 and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal by the Secretary of the Army Stanley Resor. Shortly after being discharged from the Army, in August of 1975, he was appointed to the Teaneck Police Department as a law enforcement officer.  During his police career, he attended Fairleigh Dickenson University’s where he earned an Associate in Arts Degree with honors. He has completed training programs at several law enforcement educational facilities such as John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the NJ State Police Training Academy and the New England Institute of Law Enforcement and Management (Babson College). In addition to his educational accomplishments, he is a certified State of New Jersey Police Training Instructor.

           Initially, writing a book about the Vietnam War or being an author was the further thing from his mind. However, shortly after returning from Vietnam, his father urged him to file a disability claim with the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) for medical problems he had experienced during his service. He began the process without much enthusiasm and quickly got sidelined by his new civilian life. Little did he realize that he wouldn’t re-visit those claims until some forty years later. He’s still not quite sure what happened that day, but after listening to a speech given by President Barack Obama on the the Vietnam War, he felt an overpowering urgency to commit himself to investigate the causal link between his exposures to Agent Orange and the myriad health problems plaguing his life and the lives of many other Vietnam veterans.

When he started his research journey into Agent Orange, he never suspected what he would discover. The deeper his exploration took him, and the more he saw all the lives which had been taken and damaged by the rampant use of pesticides during the war; the more determined he became to try to set the record straight. So, starting with the death of his friend and fellow veteran, Larry White the concept for Silent Spring - Deadly Autumn of the Vietnam War was born, and a reluctant writer emerged out of sheer exasperation and sorrow.