The author is an avid reader of the history of the frontier west and the United States, and of the part that the African-American played in its development. After graduating from Mays High School in Goulds, Florida, he enlisted in the United States Air Force where he was subsequently assigned to a base in the sand hills of North Carolina. After a second enlistment in the Air Force that included two tours to Southeast Asia during the Viet Nam conflict, he continued his education using the G.I. bill, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville, N.C