Robert W. Black is a retired U.S. Army colonel who served in Vietnam and with the 8th Ranger Infantry Company (Airborne) in the Korean War. Parachute and glider qualified, twice the recipient of the combat Infantry Badge, he was awarded the Silver Star, three Bronze Stars--two for valor and one for meritorious service--the Legion of Merit, the Air Medal, and sixteen other awards and decorations. He was the founding president of the Airborne Ranger Association of the Korean War and was inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame in 1995. He is the author of Rangers in Korea and Rangers in World War II and is currently writing the definitive history of the Rangers over the past four hundred years and a book on Rangers in the American Civil War. He lives in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.