CONFIRMED: Andrew Carroll is the founder of the Legacy Project, a national, all-volunteer campaign that encourages Americans to seek out and preserve wartime correspondence before these letters are lost or thrown away. He is the editor of three New York Times best-sellers, including War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars (Scribner, 2001), which came out of the Legacy Project and was the basis for the critically acclaimed PBS documentary of the same name. Behind the Lines (Simon and Schuster, 2005) features 200 rare and previously unpublished personal war letters (and e-mails) of American and foreign troops and civilians beginning with the American Revolution and continuing up through Operation Iraqi Freedom. He is recipient of the DAR’s Medal of Honor and Freedom Forum’s Free Spirit Award. When he isn’t traveling around the country encouraging Americans to save their war letters, he lives in Washington, D.C.

Andrew Carroll's most recent book Grace Under Fire: Letters of Faith in Times of War, due to be published just before the conference, is an inspiring and spiritual collection of wartime letters and e-mails written by U.S. troops and their families during every major conflict in American history.

CONFIRMED: Colonel Bryan McCoy was the commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion 4th Marine Regiment from May 2002 through July 2004 and led his battalion through two combat tours in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The 3rd Battalion was the first Marine unit to enter Baghdad on April 7, 2003, and it was this unit that pulled down the Saddam statue in Firdos Square on April 9, 2003. In the second tour the 3rd Battalion saw action during Operation Vigilant Resolve in Fallujah in April and May of 2004.

McCoy has served primarily in infantry and light armored reconnaissance units as platoon commander, company commander, and operations officer at the battalion and regimental levels. In 2004, McCoy testified before the United States Congress House Armed Services Committee on the situation in Iraq.

McCoy’s awards include the Legion of Merit with Combat ‘V’, the Bronze Star with Combat ‘V’, and the Combat Action Ribbon with gold star in lieu of second award. He was the winner of the 2003 Navy League General John A. Lejuene Inspirational Leadership Award and has been the subject of articles in Time magazine and New York Times Magazine.

McCoy is a published author on combat leadership (The Passion of Command: The Moral Imperative of Leadership) and is the subject of the book McCoy’s Marines: Darkside to Baghdad by embedded reporter John Koopman. He is currently the assistant chief of staff/operations officer at the Training and Education Command. Colonel McCoy will be taking command of the 7th Marine Regiment early summer, 2007.

INVITED: Author McCoy's Marines
John Koopman is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. He grew up in rural Nebraska and joined the United States Marines right out of high school. He spent four years in the Corps before being honorably discharged at the rank of sergeant. Koopman studied Journalism and Spanish Literature at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, graduating in 1984. He worked at newspapers in Florida, Omaha and California before joining the San Francisco Examiner as an assignment editor in 1997. After the Examiner merged with the Chronicle, Koopman returned to reporting. In 2002, he was tapped to become one of the Chronicle's embedded reporters covering the war in Iraq. He rode with the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment across the border into Iraq and covered battles in Basra, Diwaniyah, Al Kut and Baghdad. Koopman wrote about his experiences in his book, McCoy's Marines: Darkside to Baghdad.

CONFIRMED: Author Shared Courage: A Marine Wife's Story of Strength and Service

Michelle Keener is the wife of an active duty Marine and mother of two. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, her husband was deployed twice to Iraq as part of Third Batallion, Fourth Marines, the famous McCoy's Marines. Michelle worked closely with the command and families of 3/4 as the Key Volunteer Coordinator for the unit. She has shared her experiences as the wife of a Marine serving in combat in her book Shared Courage: A Marine Wife's Story of Strength and Service. Her book is an honest look at the lives of those who are left behind when their loved ones are called to serve. Michelle has a MA in Theology and currently lives in Virginia. She works as a freelance writer and is the Virginia state coordinator for Operation Special Delivery, an organization that provides volunteer labor support for women of deployed or deceased service members.

In Shared Courage: A Marine Wife's Story of Strength and Service, Michelle Keener gives a firsthand experience of a Marine wife during wartime: Her husband is a Marine officer with two tours in Iraq including time in Fallujah. From their meeting in the years before the events of 9/11 through his deployments into the Iraq war zone, Michelle brings readers into the homes of those left behind—those who also serve. From raising children to comforting other wives to keeping the bills paid back home, Michelle presents a heartfelt and moving account of the loneliness of wartime distance—and the constant fear that the next Marine to fall will be her own.

Michelle transforms the anonymity of those who fight war and support the warriors into personal stories of courage, confidence, and caring. From the false hopes for war’s end when Saddam’s statue was pulled down, to the surprise second deployment by way of Okinawa to fight a new and different war, to the appearance of her husband in a touching photo—shown worldwide—carrying an injured child, Michelle brings readers along on the emotional roller coaster of being in a military family.

CONFIRMED: Co-Author Down Range: To Iraq and Back, Once a Warrior: Wired for Life, and workbook course entitled, "Turning Your Heart Toward Home"

Dr. Bridget C. Cantrell is a member of the American Psychological Association, Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists, The International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies, and National Board Certified Counselor Association. She has specialized in trauma for several years, and her primary work now encompasses counseling war veterans and their families.

With a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology she is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in the State of Washington, and is Nationally Board Certified Mental Health Counselor.

The authors of best-selling, Down Range: To Iraq and Back, Dr. Bridget Cantrell and Vietnam Veteran Chuck Dean, have teamed up once again to take you on the next step in the process of coming home when your tour of duty is over. Their new book, Once a Warrior: Wired For Life, comes out just prior to the conference.

Once a Warrior: Wired For Life illustrates how to turn negatives into positives and assists our highly trained military personnel in utilizing their tremendous potential in achieving success and happiness after they are released from military service. This book highlights the path along the way to transitioning from warrior to civilian. It is not a book to read just once, but one to study over and over again.

Dr. Cantrell will be a member of the Discussion Panel for "Returning from Combat" on Saturday as well as being available in the Authors' Hall both Friday and Saturday.

CONFIRMED: Author Don't Forget To Look Up: A Christian's Guide to Overcoming Anxiety and Panic Attacks

Angela began having panic attacks during her senior year in college at Kent State University when she was 21 years old. Several months later she was diagnosed with panic disorder and began her most important, life-changing battle: the battle against fear. She had to overcome some of panic’s most debilitating symptoms to arrive on the other side of the mountain victoriously.

She has been at the very lowest low of panic…when irrational thoughts and negative feelings seemed so overwhelming. But by God’s grace and power, what was meant for evil and destruction has become Angela’s greatest testimony and a resource for her as she reaches down and pulls others up out of their despair.

Angela will be presenting a Sunday Morning breakout session in addition to having her Authors' Hall exhibit open all day Saturday.

CONFIRMED: Gunnery Sergeant Bob Newman USMC (Ret) is the host of the top-rated "Gunny Bob Show" on Newsradio 850 KOA in Denver and is a frequent guest analyst and commentator on national security matters for FOX News Channel, MSNBC, the BBC and other networks. The author of 21 books, his best seller is Guerrillas in the Mist: A Battlefield Guide to Clandestine Warfare. His latest book is the noted Minefields to Microphones: Global Asymmetric Warfare, the Radical Left and Winning the War on Terror (2006). His next book is The War for America: Liberal Extremism, Moral Turpitude, and High Crimes and Misdemeanors from Cumberland House in hardcover, 17 chapters, 320 pages, due out in June 2007. He is a decorated, parachute- and scuba-qualified ground combat veteran, a member of the International Counter-Terrorism Officers Association, a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, and a life member of the Disabled American Veterans.