About the Author

Vernon was raised by a steal plant worker and a homemaker. Although his father did not go to church his mother raised him in an Assembly of God Church. Vernon went to church every Sunday morning and night and most all Wednesday nights. Finally on November 29, 1973 Vernon joined the navy. That was the end of his church going days for many years. He was in the seventh grade when he wrote a poem that was so good that the teacher refused to believe that he wrote it and only gave him an A- for it. This was the start of his writing years. Vernon got into submarine duty and loved it. He first served on the USS Henry Clay 625 for about six months and then on the USS Thomas E. Edison 610 for another two years. While in the navy he earned the sharpshooter's medal with the M-14 rifle for three years running. He learned much about weapons as he worked in the torpedo room. He continued to write poems throughout his navy years making some officers a bit angry when he told the truth about them in his poems. When Vernon got out of the navy on January 19, 1977, after extending two months to make a fourth patrol, he went into steal work in constructing many of the buildings in the Houston area. Then one day he fell two floors into a pile of freshly dumped sand and that we the end of his iron working days. He remains terrified of heights to this day. Vernon got married in 1977 but, this marriage only lasted three years. When his son was born that December he was a changed man. He continued to write. He started getting into survival a little bit in the navy and got handy with the M-14 rifle and the 1911 .45 caliber pistol. He even bought his first pistol in the navy. In 1984 Vernon started college and earned eighteen credit hours of criminal justice. He wanted to be a game warden but never pursued it. A second marriage started on October 12, 1986 in Louisiana. The home sick Texas boy landed a job driving cross country. The company's home base was in Texas so they moved back to Texas. In 2006 Vernon and his second wife moved onto land that would soon be his inheritance. But this marriage ended when his wife left him in 2010. Through all of these years Vernon continued to make writing and reading about survival a big part of his life. Vernon now lives on his land which banks on a Texas lake and continues to write.