Barry Pencek

I have orbited the sun seventy-seven times since I was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, which, I suppose, makes me old. After graduating from Cumberland College, I joined the Marine Corps and flew attack helicopters in Vietnam. Following my stint in the Marines I went to graduate school at the University of Georgia then worked for Bell Helicopter in Iran as a flight instructor with the Iranian Army. Upon returning to the States, I joined the Marine Corps Reserve while beginning a career in commercial aviation, eventually flying with Emery Airfreight, Eastern, Pan Am, and United. My wife Mary and I currently reside in the Atlanta area where I spend most of my time writing, reading, tinkering, cooking, and sipping wine. Years ago, I fiddled with the idea that I would write a book for my four sons to pass along some common sense and practical advice about personal finance. After retiring from United Airlines in 2006, I began volunteering at consumer advocate Clark Howard's Consumer Action Center, answering phone calls from across the country. It was then I realized it wasn't just my sons in need of such advice and the family project morphed into my first book, The Millennial's Guide to Wealth: Learn About Saving, Investing, Spending and Living While Drinking Beer, for which I was the 2017 Runner-up for Georgia Author of the Year. In 2017 I got to attend a Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House for Army medic Mike Rose who received the MOH for his gallantry during Operation Tailwind, a mission in Laos in 1970 that I had participated in. By now the writing bug had bitten and the full story of that mission screamed to be told. After five years of research Operation Tailwind: Memoirs of a Secret Battle in a Secret War was released in 2022. Once bitten by the writing bug I've discovered it's a difficult affliction to cure and I recently embarked on my first novel. Icarus, or perhaps Isfahan, the title is still up in the air, will be a historical thriller centered on the Iranian revolution. I hope to have it finished for release in the not-too-distant future. Stay tuned.