Gary A. Best earned a PhD from the University of Minnesota and holds rank as Professor Emeritus at California State University, Los Angeles. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan, is the recipient of the Outstanding Professor award of his university and has been named a distinguished alumnus from two colleges. His first book of the Second World War, Belle of the Brawl: Letters Home from a B-17 Bombardier, was a medallist of the Military Writers Society of America. Silent Invaders: Combat Gliders of the Second World War is his first book for Fonthill Media.