Richard E. Killblane

Richard E. Killblane is best described as a soldier-historian who writes military history from the inside out. He served as an Army officer in Infantry and Special Forces, earned an M.A. in history, and spent more than 19 years as the U.S. Army Transportation Corps Historian where he traveled to Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Haiti to document military operations firsthand. His career strongly influences his prose. He gives enormous weight to the human story and likes to put the reader alongside the soldiers. His work on convoy operations, for example, is built around the experiences of truck drivers, convoy commanders, and soldiers under fire rather than simply describing the decisions of senior commanders. That gives his books a strong you-are-there quality. His prose is designed to be understood by soldiers and general readers. Some Goodreads readers have specifically described The Filthy Thirteen as sometimes feeling more like an action novel than conventional history.