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 Updated 4/23/12

9/11 plus - Author bio
1. Name: Bing West
2. Title: President, GAMA Corporation
3. Biography:
Francis "Bing" West is from the Massachusetts communities of Dorchester, Boston, Milton, and Scituate. He was an infantry officer in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. He served with a Combined Action Platoon and was also a member of the Marine Force Reconnaissance team that initiated small unit attacks behind enemy lines.

He authored a study at the RAND Corporation entitled "The Strike Teams: Tactical Performance and Strategic Potential." This paper was the featured event at the 1970 Department of Defense Counterinsurgency Research and Development Symposium. West's Book, The Village, chronicled the daily lives of 15 Marines who protected a Vietnameses village by living among them in their hamlets and became a classic of practical counterinsurgency that has been on the Commandant's Required Reading list for 36 years.

West served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs in the Reagan administration, and chaired the United States Security Commissions with El Salvador, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, South Korea, and Japan. He is currently president of the GAMA Corporation, which designs war-games and combat decision-making simulations.

The author of seven books, West's collaboration with retired Marine Major General Ray "E-Tool" Smith, The March Up, was awarded the Marine Corps Heritage prize for non-fiction, as well as the Colby Award for military history. The Veterans of Foreign Wars presented West with its National Media Award in 2005.

He frequently appears on C-SPAN and The News Hour, and his articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The National Review, and The Washington Post.

He lives with his wife, Elizabeth, in Newport, Rhode Island.
4. Involvement/Affiliations:
  • Recipient, Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal
  • Recipient, Department of the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Medal
  • Recipient, Tunisia's Medaille de Liberte
  • Member, Council on Foreign Relations
  • Member, Middle East Institute
  • Member, Infantry Order of St.Crispin
  • Woodrow Wilson Fellow, Princeton University
5. Education:
  • M.A., Princeton University
  • B.A., Georgetown University
6. Published Works:
  • The Wrong War, 2011
  • The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics and the Endgame in Iraq, 2008
  • No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah, 2006
  • The March Up: Taking Bagdad with the 1st Marine Division,  2003
  • The Pepperdogs, 2002
  • The Village, 2002
  • Small Unit Action in Vietname: Summer 1966, 1967
7. Contact Info: Website: www.bingwest.com
Email: westbing@yahoo.com