The Author
My background
Craig started his third career by becoming an author. His first career, and the foundation for much of his writing, was his thirty years' service as an Army officer in the active and reserve forces from 1988 to 2018. During that period, Craig was present at the fall of the Iron Curtain in Europe, did peacekeeping in the Balkans, deployed to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and ended his career in Afghanistan. He had multiple overseas deployments, trained international troops in Europe, Africa, and Asia, and worked on establishing legal systems in both Iraq and Afghanistan. From 2012 to 2022 he was elected to be a criminal court judge in Pennsylvania, where he founded a veterans court to assist troops who had trouble successfully reassimilating to civilian life after combat.
My writing roots
Craig wrote professionally for years, both in the legal profession and for the Army. Returning home from the Iraq War, however, he saw that the way the war and our soldiers were portrayed in the media, movies, and by politicians, bore little resemblance to the reality. He began writing to preserve the stories of our military personnel, stripped of the action figure hype and the political blather. Craig's writing reflects his view that "The fact that our troops get cold, tired, scared, and still keep moving forward is what makes them awe-inspiring."
My Subjects
I write from the viewpoint of the soldiers who face the most difficult situations in wartime. Few choices in war are black and white. There is a daily parade of decisions made in the fatigue, anxiety, and murk of war that determines who lives and who dies. Sometimes choices that initially appear smart on the surface end badly. This is particularly true in modern warfare where the enemy often does not wear a uniform and mixes with a civilian population. My books, collectively known as "The Cost of War Trilogy," explore those choices within the inherent chaos and unpredictability of war.