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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Randolph Carter Harrison grew up in a Southern, military family, living in forty-nine different places ranging from Virginia to Lisbon and Paris. A Special Forces warrior who performed classified missions in Vietnam, Harrison came home to finish college then pursued a career in journalism, culminating in work as an award-winning foreign correspondent.


During his travels, Harrison became enamored with the great city of Seattle where he secured a position with The Boeing Company retiring as head of media relations. While there, he rejoined Army Special Forces serving in a Reserve Unit A Team.


Harrison is married with two sons. He currently lives with his wife and two dogs on the side of Squak Mountain in the foothills of the Cascades.

 

West From Yesterday is Harrison's first novel.

 

 

 

 

FULL BIOGRAPHY

During his first of two tours of duty in Vietnam, Harrison commanded a Recon Company in the top secret, all-volunteer unit known as SOG (Special Operations Group). On his second tour, he trained Viet Cong and North Vietnamese prisoners who volunteered to serve as scouts for the American Army.

 

Harrison completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Central Florida then worked for nearly two decades at the Orlando Sentinel, culminating his journalism career as the paper’s foreign correspondent.

 

Originally hired by Boeing to write about company products and people, Harrison quickly advanced to a media relations role in the immediate aftermath of the Lockerbie terrorist bombing. Over the next twenty years, he helped develop the media relations department leading the teams that reacted to all major accidents, terrorist attacks and incidents around the globe.

 

Harrison was recruited in 1995 to the Boeing Defense and Space group where he lead work that included communications strategies for groundbreaking technologies such as the unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) project, airborne laser project, joint strike fighter project, stealth project, airborne early warning systems, maritime patrol, Future Combat Systems and tanker projects.

 

Harrison had a front row seat to history as he worked with executives and teams that created design and manufacturing techniques that have shaped the modern aerospace industry.

 

MILITARY HONORS

Awarded three Bronze Stars (Harrison insists only one was for Valor & the other two were for “just being there.”)

Army Commendation Medal for Valor

Air Medal

Combat Infantryman’s Badge

American and Vietnamese Parachutists Badges

 

FEATURES IN BOOKS & MAGAZINES

Time Life –The Vietnam Experience: Rain of Fire pg. 10

Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia pg.24-26, 288

SOG – The Secret War of American’s Commando’s in Vietnam by John L. Plaster

SOG Series by Harvey Saal pg. 118, 122

Secret Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines with the Elite Warriors of SOG by John L. Plaster pg. 118-120

Secret Green Beret Commandos in Cambodia by Fred S. Lindsey pg.13, 317

Soldier of Fortune Magazine

 

FEATURES IN NEWSPAPERS

Wall Street Journal

New York Times

Associated Press

Orlando Sentinel

Seattle Times

 

FEATURES ON TELEVISION

PBS NOVA: Battle of the X Planes

 

NOTABLE PUBLIC FIGURES MET OR INTERVIEWED

Richard Nixon

Jimmy Carter

Dwight Eisenhower

Gerald Ford

George W. Bush

Henry Kissinger

Jimmy Dolittle

Zia al Haq

Ayman al Zawahiri

Rajiv Gandhi

Fidel Castro

Alex Haley

Bob Hope

 

Learn more about Randolph Carter Harrison on Facebook and on our updates page.

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