Tom Kratman is author of A State of Disobedience (Baen). In 1974, at age seventeen, he became a political refugee and defector from the PRM (People's Republic of Massachusetts) by virtue of joining the Regular Army. He attended Boston College after his first hitch, then rejoined the Army until after the Gulf War, when he decided to become a lawyer. Every now and again, when the frustrations of legal life and having to deal with other lawyers got to be too much, Tom would rejoin the Army (or a somewhat similar group, say) for fun and frolic in other climes. His family, muttering darkly, still puts up with this. Tom is currently an attorney practicing in southwest Virginia.