Battle Ready

MARK L. DONALD, the son of a retired U.S. Army Warrant Officer and a Mexican mother, enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps before transferring to the Navy to train as a Corpsman. He subsequently completed Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training and served in SEALs until 1996 when he was selected for the Intra-service Physician Assistant Program. He graduated with a degree from the University of Nebraska and was commissioned a Medical Service Corps officer. Following the September 11th terrorist attacks, he was assigned as operational medical support to special operations, where he served in a number of capacities until his retirement. Donald was awarded the Navy Cross, the highest medal awarded by the Department of the Navy, for extraordinary heroism while engaged in enemy action against al Qaeda fighters in southern Afghanistan. He lives in Chesapeake, Virginia.

SCOTT MACTAVISH is an author, filmmaker and veteran of the United States Navy. He does volunteer work for the Navy SEAL Foundation, and serves on the Advisory Team for the I:68 Foundation, a national non-profit organization that provides monetary relief to law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.

Fred Berman is a five-time winner of the AudioFile Earphone Award for Audiobook Narration and the recipient of the 2013 Audie Award for narration in Spy the Lie. He has read a number of audiobooks for young listeners, including Judy Blume’s Soupy Saturdays with The Pain & The Great One and Andrew Clements’s The Last Holiday Concert. He has also narrated the audiobooks for Robert Kirkman’s popular series, The Walking Dead.

Berman is an accomplished actor of both the stage and screen as well, performing on Broadway as Timon in The Lion King and off-Broadway in Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and King Lear. On television, Berman has had roles on NBC’s hit series Smash as well as All My Children and Law and Order. He lives in New York City.