Those who fight their nation's wars are typically those least able to avoid it.

A messmate before a shipmate; a shipmate before a stranger; a stranger before a dog; and a dog before a soldier.

The world was, is now and always will be complicated and volatile place filled with those whose own self-interests supersede more noble aspirations. If history has taught us anything it is that times may change but human nature does not. The competing interests and political tensions of the formation of our country were not more or less dysfunctional than they are today with the best and worst of individual behavior continually on display.

Jack Halliday wants nothing more than to belong somewhere that provides him with security and values his worth. In an uncaring world that devours the weak he is forced to rely on his strongest attribute, his ability and willingness to fight, that ironically belies his benevolent nature. Much like the fledgling union of the thirteen original colonies, Jack's rebirth into autonomy constantly teeters on demise in a world where his decisions are all he can control.

Ray Deptula is a native of Wells, Maine, and a graduate of Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, Maine. He spent 24 years in the U.S. Navy as a helicopter pilot and a political-military office in Europe. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island with a Master of Arts degree in National Security and Strategic Studies. Those Damned Yankees is the first series of books Ray has published, having conceived of it while taking a Revolutionary War elective course at the Naval War College.

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Choosing values over raw survival

Step into the smoke and struggle of the American Revolution as seen through the eyes of Jack Halliday, a British soldier caught between loyalty and conscience.  A Dog Before A Soldier blends real battles with raw emotion, bringing history to life through vivid scenes, moral tension, and the slow unraveling of identity in a war that reshaped a nation and the man who fought it.