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DAVID D. FERMAN
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While growing up in a low-rent section of Wichita, Kansas during the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, the birth of Rock 'N' Roll, and World War II, Dave and several classmates won All-American, All Catholic and Quill and Scroll awards for high school journalism. However, he worked his way through college beginning as a 17-year old bartender and bouncer in several honkey tonk roadhouses, a cowboy on a trotting horse ranch, by playing smash-mouth defensive end and kicking footballs, rough necking in the oil patch, painting airplanes at BeechCraft, bucking rivets at Boeing Aircraft Company, and eventually on the G.I. Bill. Dave turned down two minor league contracts in 1951 and 1952 with the Boston Red Sox so he could remain eligible to play college varsity football and baseball on scholarships. During the Korean War, Dave was a U.S. Marine machine gunner, a Military Policeman (MP), a boot camp Drill Instructor (DI), and a pilot for 13 months until he crashed, burned and almost drowned in a Florida swamp. Dave then served a covert tour with Navy Air Intelligence in the Mediterranean Theatre and the Middle East. After graduation from college and certification as a high school English and science teacher, Dave finally realized that the defense industry paid double his teaching salary. He joined BeechCraft to write military aircraft flight manuals, was promoted to Vice President at Stanley Aviation, extended his horizons to proposals and marketing with three Top Ten aerospace companies, and became a Program Administrator for the Lockheed-Martin Corporation (the largest Defense Company in the world) until he retired on the first day of 2000. Dave has authored four memoirs, three murder mysteries, and one nostalgic but mostly fiction novel (all eight of which were republished at least one or more times), two 5-minute trailers, this web site, and one of Dave's memoirs (1938, Ghosts That I Have Known) has been converted to an Audio book. Tired of playing silly, frustrating games with various publishers, Dave and Floyd Harding (a Webmaster Wizard) toiled about six months planning and developing a more acceptable arrangement one step at a time. Finally, on 2 January 2020, our Old Tiger Publications was finally mature enough to be independently viable. Semper fi. Go Navy. |
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Dave prefers to write about familiar subjects: people, places, things, football, flying, the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S Navy
For example, in 1986 Bad Moon Over Alpine: |
1)Two of the main characters—Gordy Tyler and Charlie Holoman—grew up in a low rent neighborhood in Denver, Colorado. Dave grew up in a low-rent neighborhood of Wichita, Kansas. 2) Gordy and Charlie were Marine infantry Grunts, and so was Dave. 3) Gordy and Charlie were Marine Drill Instructors. Dave was a Marine DI too. 4) Gordy and Charlie roamed the vlliages and desert wilderness of Israel and Jordan to identify future military defensive sites, and were shot at by Arabs and Israelis as well. Dave roamed the same areas and was shot at by the same people. 5) Charlie is an acrobatic pilot. Dave is a military trained acrobatic pilot. 6) Charlie is the Top Cop in the mountain village of "Alpine." Dave was a Military Policeman (MP) and a Defense Industry Security Manager working with plant security, local police and the FBI to protect U.S. classified documents and equipment. 7) Charlie's favorite place is the mountain village of "Alpine" and environs. Dave's favorite places are Independence Pass, a pause to enjoy the elan of Aspen, then onward to the Maroon Bells in the same area. 8) Charlie uses computers, but does not know much about them. Dave is in the same boat. 9) The serial murderer may be a professional photographer. Dave was a professional photographer. 10) The final shootout is in the old ghost town of Ashcroft. Dave spent many happy hours in Ashcroft. 11) The shootout involves M1 and AR-15 rifles, and a single-action revolver. Dave taught Marine recruits how to shoot and maintain M1 rifles, owns a single-action revolver, and a AR-15 rifle, and enjoys teaching gun safety and accurate shooting to firearms neophytes at local rifle and pistol ranges 12) Gordy is left handed and very good looking. Dave is left handed. |  |
