Neil Burckart is a lifetime hunter, ex-navy hardhat salvage diver, and private pilot. Neil has written several books and short stories but has never tried to publish one until this story. He was born and raised on a farm in North East Iowa, went to school (first eight grades) in a country school, then went to high school at the little Mississippi river town of McGregor, Iowa.

He joined the navy in 1956. After his time in the service, he went back to Iowa, but the winters were way too cold, after spending his years in the South Pacific and California. He moved to California in 1961. His primary occupation was construction, which took him too many different parts of the country.

He met Denny Thompson on a hunting trip to Alaska in 1984, where a friendship was established and has flourished to this day. After several more hunting and fishing trips, where Neil had the opportunity to listen to endless stories about the war and hundreds of hunting stories, it became his burning desire and ambition to make sure this story was told and recorded in book form so it could live on long after Lieutenant Thompson is gone.