I grew up in Los Angeles and Miami where, in what has proven to be one of life's little ironies, my high school mascot was a Crusader. I could not have begun to see the relevance to later life.

Today I find myself with a Juris Doctorate degree, a TS/SCI clearance and over 26 years of experience in the defense, intelligence and homeland security arenas. I have worked in Israel, across Western and Eastern Europe, Africa, the Far East as well as Central and South America and have provided intelligence and counterterrorism support for US Special Operations in the Middle East and Central Asia. I had the unique opportunity to serve the GRA Special Programs division during their role in rescuing hostages caught in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. Along the way I've been called on to appear as an expert witness before various legislative bodies, such as the California General Assembly, on terrorism and security related topics. Commissioned as a Virginia law enforcement officer, I served as a Captain at the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad police department in support of that agency’s explosives detection unit, and served four years on a Washington DC area Special Operations Hazmat Response Team.

The long, strange odyssey that has been life thus far has been marked by some unusual milestones; time in the Nicaraguan jungle with Eden "Commandante Zero" Pastora and learning the word culebra the hard way; watching the testing of Soviet submarine propellor designs at a hydrodynamics lab in Bulgaria; to crossing into North Korea through landmined tunnels some thirty stories below the DMZ. In his biography, Hazardous Duty, Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub, tells a story about my spontaneously commandeering Washington DC's National Airport; I wouldn't recommend trying it today.

Perhaps one of the rarest treats for any guy was the chance to meet my two greatest heroes in life, John Wayne and President Ronald Reagan. They don't make Americans like that any more. These days I can be found wandering the woods of the Shenandoah Valley in the company of my best friend, a huge German Shepherd named Shogun.

"If you're not part of the steamroller, you're part of the pavement."

Driving a Formula-1 car at 110mph into the Andretti Hairpin at the legendary Laguna Seca racetrack while attending the Skip Barber Racing School.

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