MAGallery Author

David's interest in the military began early. Perhaps because of deep family military roots, he read prodigiously as a child of America's history and its wars and studied guerilla warfare in high school.

In 1966, after a year of college and ROTC and not long after insertion of U.S. combat troops into Vietnam, he enlisted in the army. Eleven months later, he was commissioned as second lieutenant and assigned to the JFK Special Warfare School's Counterinsurgency Department, received special forces, civil affairs, and psychological operations training, and attended jump school. In 1968, he served with the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam; by the age of 22, he was leading 40 men in combat. Wounded in battle, David was twice decorated for valor.

David returned home, was promoted to captain, and served with the 3rd and 6th Special Forces Groups with a stint in Liberia. After leaving active duty, he served with Florida's Special Forces unit and secured bachelor's and master's degrees. Over the next forty years, he worked in the Middle East, Africa, Latin American, Caribbean, Asia, Caucuses, and the U.S. for USAID, World Bank, UNDP, IDB, non-profits, corporations, universities, governments, and started his own company.

In 2015, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released its study on the CIA's detention and interrogation of prisoners. Military and civilian leaders proclaimed the report was not who Americans were as a people and said we should comply explicitly with the Geneva Conventions. Questioning if the leaders were fully familiar with the Conventions and had placed their relevance into the realities of war, David saw a need for a manual for those in command to help guide them in the horrendous decisions they were constantly forced to make. In 2022, after auditing courses at UGA, UVA Law, Duke Law, and the Institute of International Humanitarian Law, David published, Conduct in War, A Guide for the Ethical Warrior.

David and his wife Shandon have had a home in Madison since 1994 and currently split their time between Madison and Florida.