What's Life Without a Dream?

As a victim of paternal abuse, I rebelled and behaved badly, and as a teenager, came close to committing a serious felony. My saving grace was a neighbor, an FBI agent, who took the time to talk with me about his career, and a dream was born. Graduating from high school near the bottom of my class, no colleges would accept me. The Vietnam War and--with no college deferment--the draft loomed. I had only a job as a dishwasher to sustain myself. Then, just as my father was about to throw me out, and within days before college classes were to begin, I learned of a one-time exception at Southern Illinois University which allowed me to enter on probation. A series of close calls followed, any one of which, if not overcome, would have quashed my dream. But I never up, and against the odds, I made it. I write in this book of my journey to achieve my dream, and of experiences as an intelligence officer in Vietnam and Thailand, and of many of the cases I investigated as an FBI agent. Now retired and a volunteer, I'm grateful for my almost 50 years of happy marriage, my two children who grew up to lead lives of dignity and achievement, and the grandchildren I adore.