Over the next thirteen years, 1962 to 1975, I spent more time in Vietnam than I did in the U.S. My primary job was providing signals intelligence support to troops in combat. Because I spent so much time on the battlefield, I developed a severe case of Post-Traumatic Stress Injury (PTSI) from which I still suffer and always will. In 1974, I was assigned to head the clandestine National Security Agency (NSA) operation in Vietnam. And in April 1975, after managing the evacuation of my 43 subordinates and their families, I escaped under fire when Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese invaders.
Because I was competent in seven foreign languages, I spent a number of years after the fall of Vietnam offering signals intelligence support to U.S. and friendly forces all over the world, though where, what I did, and who I worked with are still classified. Meanwhile, in the early 1980s, because of my PTSI affliction, I needed to focus my attention and avoid dwelling on my hideous memories. So I volunteered to care for dying AIDS patients. Over a period of five years, I helped seven gay men find a peaceful death. Then, when science found a way to prevent AIDS from being fatal, I spent a couple of years working with the homeless, then volunteered to work with the dying in the Gilchrist Hospice.
Meanwhile, I found out that the George Washington University in D.C. offered graduate degrees to part-time evening students. I enrolled and eventually took a masters in government and then a doctorate in public administration. NSA promoted me to the top levels of the Senior Executive Service (SES). I retired as early as I could with a handsome annuity that allowed me to write full-time.
I had been writing fiction since I was six years old. But now, free of money problems, I devoted myself to finishing and polishing my books. Six of them are in print. You can learn more about them (and me) at https://p-nt-www-amazon-in-kalias.amazon.in/Tom-Glenn/e/B009GGNYUM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_16&sr=1-16 Critics note that my writing is fiction in name only—all the events I describe really did happen.
Hence my wild life thus far. But I’m not finished yet. The best is surely yet to come.
Tom Glenn, Writer 