Thom was born in Missouri and raised around Ft Smith, Arkansas. He grew up watching local rodeos and admiring the bronc riders until he found out the hard way just how demanding that profession was. After an engineering degree, he joined the US Army and served as a green beret for thirty years, serving in Vietnam, South America, and Africa. In Vietnam he was a raider company commander for a cross-border operations unit. He retired from the Army in the late nineties as a Colonel and has been writing since. He is a graduate of the National Defense University and instructed at the Command and General Staff School. He has his MBA from Pepperdine University and is a Registered Engineer and a Enrolled Agent for the IRS. He skis, scuba dives and plays a fairly mean game of Golf. He and his wife Sandy live in Colorado, close to the ski slopes and the grandkids.