Regular Army Corporal is a story of an American family and of a childhood and adolescence in the troubled and now forgotten eras of the Great Depression and World War II, and of a young man's struggle for maturity and fulfillment in his relationship with Jesus Christ in the midst of war. In it the author addresses troublesome issues of morality, sexuality, ethics, alcoholism, and military discipline and leadership that are every bit as urgent and compelling today as in the wars of the past century and throughout our history. It is also a tribute to the Magnificent Generation, our "mighty men of valor," who evolved as professional soldiers in the dark days of World War II and went on to lead our young soldiers in the decades of war and international tension that followed.

Dick Ellmers was born in 1929 and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. He enlisted in the army at seventeen, shortly after the end of World War II, and remained in the army for almost 21 years, retiring as a Master Sergeant. He served most of his army time overseas, including multiple combat tours, in Korea with the 3rd Infantry Division, and in Southeast Asia and Vietnam in advisory and Special Forces assignments. He attended college during the academic tumult of the late '60s, and thereafter lived and worked in Germany and later as a commercial fisherman in Alaska. Returning to Ohio in the mid '70s for graduate studies, he was employed in industrial security and in legal and commercial investigations until he obtained a law degree and entered the practice of law. In 1999 he closed his Alaska law practice and spent the next six years as an itinerant instructor in western law and business subjects at universities in Russia, Germany, and Kazakhstan. Now in his eighties, he resides in Southwest Alaska.