Brian Castner is author of The Long Walk, an Amazon Best Book of 2012 and Chautauqua Literary & Scientific Circle selection for 2013. Previously, he served as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal officer in the U.S. Air Force from 1999 to 2007, deploying to Iraq to command bomb disposal units in Balad and Kirkuk in 2005 and 2006. After leaving the active military, he became a consultant and contractor, training soldiers and Marines prior to their tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. His writing has appeared in a number of national and regional publications, including Wired, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Outside, the Daily Beast, Foreign Policy, and Garry Trudeau’s The Sandbox anthology.