Benjamin King (also B. D. King; born 1944) is an American author, military historian and noted war gamer. He served as a Field Artillery officer during the Vietnam War and later served as an historian for the US Army. He is best known for his historical novels ''A Bullet for Stonewall'' and ''A Bullet for Lincoln''.

Military service

Born in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...

, Benjamin King earned a Bachelor of Arts in History from the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from H ...

. In 1965, he was commissioned as a Field Artillery officer in the US Army and assigned to 1st Battalion,

81st Field Artillery Regiment The 81st Field Artillery Regiment is a field artillery regiment of the United States Army. History Pershing 1st Battalion, 81st Field Artillery Regiment The 1st Missile Battalion, 81st Artillery was formed at Fort Sill in 1963 and deployed ...

(Pershing), which he recognized the

Pershing missile The MGM-31A Pershing was the missile used in the Pershing 1 and Pershing 1a field artillery missile systems. It was a solid-fueled two-stage theater ballistic missile designed and built by Martin Marietta to replace the PGM-11 Redstone missile as ...

’s similarity to the German

V-2 rocket The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develop ...

. Consequently he wrote a paper on the V-2 during the captains’ career course after his return from Vietnam, which he later turned into an article for the ‘’Field Artillery Journal’’ and later expanded into a book. After his assignment in Germany, he commanded both a 105mm artillery and headquarters battery in 2nd Battalion, 319th Field Artillery Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division during the Vietnam War from 1969 to 1970 where he was awarded the Air Medal, a Bronze Star Medal for valor and a Purple Heart Medal.

Writings

After leaving the Army in 1977, King aspired to write short stories, but upon reading a book about Stonewall Jackson during the

Battle of Chancellorsville The Battle of Chancellorsville, April 30 – May 6, 1863, was a major battle of the American Civil War (1861–1865), and the principal engagement of the Chancellorsville campaign. Chancellorsville is known as Lee's "perfect battle" because h ...

in preparation for a battlefield staff ride, he asked the question, “What if he was murdered?” Three months later he finished his first novel, ''A Bullet for Stonewall'', published by

Pelican Publishing Company Pelican Publishing Company is a book publisher based in Gretna, a suburb of New Orleans. Formed in 1926, Pelican is the largest independent trade book publisher located in the U.S. South. Pelican publishes approximately 60 titles per year and ...

in 1990. He followed up this thriller with a twist on another assassination, ''A Bullet for Lincoln'', published by Pelican in 1993. In this murder mystery, King explored the possibility of

John Wilkes Booth John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor who assassinated United States President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. A member of the prominent 19th-century Booth ...

being the scapegoat of an elaborate conspiracy “with enough probability to hold the attention of the most accuracy-minded Civil War buffs.” His third alternative history thriller, ''The Loki Project'', was published in 2000, where he considered what would have happened if the Germans had built the atomic bomb.

War Gaming

His interest in war gaming began as a child playing with toy metal soldiers when he found

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

Little Wars ''Little Wars'' is a set of rules for playing with toy soldiers, written by English novelist H. G. Wells in 1913. The book, which had a full title of ''Little Wars: a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for t ...

", the first book on war gaming rules. He next discovered Donald Featherstone’s rules and eventually wrote his own rules in 1965, which required a detailed knowledge of military history. He published his first rules in 1967 followed by many more after that. This interest led to a job with the US Army as the Chief of Simulations in the Army Transportation School in 1984 where he designed the simulations, TRANSWAR III, Theater Deployment in the AirLand Battle and TRANSWAR IV, Truck Company Operations in the AirLand Battle.

Historian

His professional career as an historian initially started as a contract historian for the Casemate Museum at

Fort Monroe Fort Monroe, managed by partnership between the Fort Monroe Authority for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the National Park Service as the Fort Monroe National Monument, and the City of Hampton, is a former military installation in Hampton, Virgi ...

from 1978 to 1979. Recognizing his extensive knowledge of military history and ability to write books, the US Army

Transportation Corps The Transportation Corps is a combat service support branch of the U.S. Army. It is responsible for the movement of personnel and material by truck, rail, air, and sea. It is one of three U.S. Army logistics branches, the others being the Qua ...

then hired King as their Command Historian in 1992 specifically to write the branch history with the assistance of Richard C. Biggs and Captain Eric R. Criner. The Army subsequently published ''Spearhead of Logistics, A History of the U.S. Army Transportation Corps'' in 1994. It was the second branch history published by any Army historian and was later republished by the

Center of Military History The United States Army Center of Military History (CMH) is a directorate within the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command. The Institute of Heraldry remains within the Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Arm ...

in 2001. Inspired by the inaccurate claim that the V-2 was ineffective, he teamed up with Timothy J. Kutta to write ''Impact, the History of Germany’s V-Weapons in World War II'', published by Sarpedon Press in 1998. Roland Green hailed it as "an outstanding revisionist history of Germany's famous rocket weapons." In 1999, King moved up to the US Army Training and Doctrine Command History Office where he wrote nine annual history reports and ''Victory Starts Here, A 35 Year History of U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command'', published by Combat Studies Institute Press in 2008, and followed up with the 40-year history also published by Combat Studies Institute Press in 2013.Victory Starts Here; A Short 35-Year History of the US Army Training and Doctrine Command, Create Space, https://www.createspace.com/3828638 He retired from the federal service in 2013 and focuses on writing, painting miniature soldiers and war gaming.

Awards and decorations

Air Medal The Air Medal (AM) is a military decoration of the United States Armed Forces. It was created in 1942 and is awarded for single acts of heroism or meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight. Criteria The Air Medal was establish ...

Bronze Star The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone. Wh ...

( "V") *

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...

References

Bibliography

*''A Bullet for Stonewall'', Pelican Publishing Company, 1990 *''A Bullet for Lincoln'', Pelican Publishing Company, 1993 *''Spearhead of Logistics; A History of the U.S. Army Transportation Corps'', U.S. Army Transportation Center, 1994, and Center of Military History, 2001, with Richard C. Biggs, and Eric R. Criner *''The Loki Project'', Pelican Publishing Company, 2000 *''Impact, The History of Germany's V-Weapons in World War II'', Sarpedon Press 1998, DeCapo Press 2003 with Timothy J. Kuta *''Victory Starts Here; A Short 35-Year History of the US Army Training and Doctrine Command'', Combat Studies Institute Press, 2008 *''Victory Starts Here; A Short 40-Year History of the US Army Training and Doctrine Command'', Combat Studies Institute Press, 2013, http://usacac.army.mil/Cac2/cgsc/carl/download/csipubs/VictoryStartsHere_40yr.pdf *''The Gruenwald Deception'', Booklocker, 2015 *''The Card'', Booklocker, 2016 *''The Fief of Central Park'', Booklocker, 2016 {{DEFAULTSORT:King, Benjamin Living people American military historians American male non-fiction writers 1944 births United States Army personnel of the Vietnam War United States Army officers 20th-century American male writers