Ronald K. Reddout

I was born in Yale, Oklahoma. Shortly thereafter, our family moved to Kansas where my father found work. I graduated from high school and went to college for a couple of years. Then I got drafted and wound up spending a year in Vietnam.
During the next couple of decades I worked at several different jobs in Kansas. One job was with a Veterans Service Organization in Wichita, Kansas. In 1987, we learned that the Moving Wall (a half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC) was coming to the city. Since I had served in Vietnam, my supervisor asked me if I would consider writing a poem for the Opening Ceremonies. Even though I'd not had much previous experience with any sort of writing, I took on this challenge. The end result was that I read my poem in front of abut 1,000 - 1,500 people at those Opening Ceremonies.
From there I started writing more poetry along with short stories and novels. I currently have a book of poetry self-published on Amazon in Kindle. I've also recently had my literary agent take a collection of my short stories and start looking for a publisher.