Before joining ARAYBEAM Corporation, I served as a Education Systems Analysist and Public Affairs Officer in the Department of Navy for 30 years. I was also an associate professor of history at Old Dominion University. My column on local maritime affairs ran in the Virginian-Pilot news paper for 25 years. I was selected as a Fellow by Special Election at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University for 7 years and a Fellow at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University, Oxford University, focusing on refugee studies and military operations other than war. I have written 8 books on maritime history, (several of which made the New York Times bestseller list in non-fiction), and my senior research papers on the Haitian and Somalia Refugee Crises were accepted in the Bodleian Library as well as my books added to the Emden Military Collection, All Souls College, OXON. A public television documentary I hosted entitled "Century" won an Emmy Award. I hold a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. in History and English from Old Dominion University, Hollins College, and Oxford, and a Diploma in English Local History from Kellogg College, Oxford. I was an establishing member of the Britannia Naval History Research Association also based in Oxford.