2008 William E. Colby
Military Writers' Symposium
April 2 - 4, 2008

Authors/Panelists

R. Alan King
Alan King is the president and CEO of Consequence Management, Inc.  King returned from Iraq in July 2004 after spending 16 months, first as a Civil Affairs battalion commander, and then as the Deputy Director of the Office of Provincial Outreach, Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad.  In addition to his service in Iraq, King has a distinguished military background in the U.S. Army, including active duty tours in Honduras and then in Panama in support of Operation Just Cause.  King remains in the Army Reserve where he serves as the Deputy Commander for Army Intelligence Elements, U.S. Central Command, Tampa, FL.  He is a recognized authority in Middle Eastern geopolitical affairs and has advised Congressional leaders and served as an advisor to senior leaders in the Departments of Defense and State. 



Thomas X. Hammes
Colonel Thomas X. Hammes, USMC (Ret.) is a well-known writer and commentator on military affairs. He has a BS from the United States Naval Academy, an MSt from Oxford University and is a graduate of the Marine Corps Command and Staff College and the Canadian National Defense College. In his 30 years in the Marine Corps, Colonel Hammes served at all levels in the operating forces and participated in stabilization operations in Somalia and Iraq. He is the author of The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century, a much-discussed book on how to combat modern-day insurgency.





Mark Stoler
Mark A. Stoler earned his BA at the City College of New York and his PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Stoler’s areas of special expertise are U.S. diplomatic and military history and World War II. Included among his many publications are Allies and Adversaries: the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Grand Alliance, and U.S. Strategy in World War II, The Politics of the Second Front: American Military Planning and Diplomacy in Coalition Warfare, 1941-1943, George C. Marshall: Soldier-Statesman of the American Century, and Allies in War: Britain and America against the Axis Powers, 1940-1945. He also co-authored Explorations in American History with Marshall True, Major Problems in the History of World War II with Melanie Gustafson, and Debating Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Foreign Policies with Justus Doenecke.




James Hornfischer
A native of Massachusetts, and a graduate of Colgate University and the University of Texas School of Law, James Hornfischer is president of Hornfischer Literary Management, a literary agency in Austin, Texas. He is also the author of two books: The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy’s Finest Hour and Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, FDR’s Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of Her Survivors. The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors received the Samuel Eliot Morison Award and was chosen for the Navy’s Professional Reading Program. Hornfischer is a member of the Naval Order of the United States, the Navy League, and was appointed by Texas Governor Rick Perry as an Admiral in the Texas Navy. His next book will cover the pivotal naval campaign for Guadalcanal, from August to December 1942, also to be published by Bantam.




David Bellavia
David Bellavia is the author of House to House, an Epic Memoir of War. Bellavia is a former Army Staff Sergeant who served in the First Infantry Division for six years. He has been recommended for the Medal of Honor by his leadership, and has been nominated for the Distinguished Service Cross. He has received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, the Conspicuous Service Cross (New York State’s highest combat valor award) and was recently inducted into the New York State Veteran’s Hall of Fame. His Task Force 2-2 Infantry has fought on such battlefields as Al Muqdadiyah, An Najaf, Al Fallujah, Mosul, and Baqubah. His actions in Fallujah, Iraq were documented in the Nov. 22, 2004 cover story “Into the Hot Zone” by award-winning journalist Michael Ware.





Jack Hammann
Jack Hamann’s career spans 27 years, including a decade as a network correspondent and documentary producer for CNN and PBS. His work has earned dozens of journalism honors, including 10 regional Emmy awards. Jack is the author of On American Soil: How Justice Became a Casualty of WWII, a nonfiction investigative account of one of the largest and most controversial events in American civil rights history. On American Soil was selected as the outstanding investigative book of 2005 by Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. Jack is the winner of the 2007 Horace Mann award, an honor bestowed on those who have achieved “victories for humanity.” Jack and his wife, Leslie, live in Seattle. They have two grown children.




Distinguished Guests


Medal of Honor recipient Drew Dix
Drew Dix is the first enlisted man in Special Forces to have been awarded the Medal of Honor. He received a direct commission to first lieutenant and retired with the rank of major after serving twenty years in the army, many of those in unconventional warfare assignments. Following retirement from the army he continued to work in support of government sponsored programs and owned and operated an air service in the Alaskan interior. He has worked as a consultant in both the private and public sectors in the areas of security and special operations including anti-terrorism. In September 2002, as Alaska’s deputy commissioner for homeland security, he was chosen to head the state’s Task Force on Homeland Security. Dix spent 10 years as Ice Station leader for previously classified projects on the Arctic Ocean. He is the author of The Rescue of River City which chronicles the events in Chau Phu for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor during the Tet Offensive of January 31–February 1, 1968.




William E. Butterworth IV
William E. Butterworth IV has been a writer and editor for major newspapers and magazines for 25 years, and has worked closely with his father for several years on the editing of the Griffin books. He is the author of The Saboteurs and The Double Agents in the W.E.B. Griffin Men at War Series.