Keith William Nolan (May 7, 1964 – February 19, 2009) was an American military historian, focusing on the various campaigns of the Vietnam War.^[1] He was born in Webster Groves, Missouri, and lived in southeastern Missouri as well as in the St. Louis suburbs for the entirety of his life. Nolan’s father was the son of Irish immigrants and became a junior college history instructor who after was serving also serving his country as a Marine. His mother is of Swedish descent and worked as a dedicated dental assistant for many years. As a child, Nolan was deeply affected by the visions of war that he would see on the nightly news as he grew into a young man; he would later say that these images are what sparked his interest in writing about the Vietnam conflict. His first book was published when Nolan was only 19 years of age. Mr. Nolan obtained a history degree from Webster University in Webster Groves, Missouri .^[2] Nolan was in seemingly good health and working on his twelfth manuscript (published posthumously) in 2007 when a routine office visit to his general practitioner revealed a large, late-stage tumor in his lung. Despite intensive treatments, Keith William Nolan died of lung cancer in February 2009 at the home of his fiancé in Wentzville, Missouri, at the age of 44. He left behind a young daughter and many loved ones, as well as a tight-knit community of Vietnam War-era veterans whose stories he wrote about in his books.