General authors military thriller
A former 10th Mountain Division deputy commanding general for support has released a military thriller that draws on his experiences in combat.
Brig. Gen. Anthony J. Tata, who is now the deputy director for the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization in Washington, D.C., has been writing all his life and wrote a book under a pen name while stationed at Fort Drum.
"At Drum, I was encouraged to publish a book and I didn't have time for publicity or for going through agents, so I self-published under a pseudonym to see if my writing was competitive," he said in a phone interview last week. "I wasn't going to do publicity because I had a full-time day job."
The first book he published, under the name Aiden Rocke, was "Rogue Threat" and was meant to be the second installment in a four-part series. In November, under his real name and through a publishing company, the first book in the series, "Sudden Threat," was released.
Gen. Tata served at Fort Drum from 2005 until 2007.
During the day, Gen. Tata now works for the Army, carrying out his duties as director of the IED defeat organization. At night and on vacation, he writes and develops his stories and characters. Gen. Tata has received the go-ahead to publish the books from his superiors.
He never mixes his day job of commanding soldiers and his hobby of writing, and takes time off when he does things for his books.
"It's a very enjoyable pursuit for me and I do get asked how I find the time, but I've never seen it as a time consumer," he said. "It's just part of my makeup and part of what I do."
For that reason, Gen. Tata is taking all the royalties earned from "Sudden Threat" and subsequent books and donating them to the USO in Washington, D.C. The money is used to sponsor trips for soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C., and Bethesda Naval Hospital, Bethesda, Md. After USO administrative costs, he said, from 93 to 95 cents per dollar goes directly to the soldiers. In one month alone, he has been able to donate $15,000.
"I dedicate the book to three soldiers who served for me and who died in combat," he said. "In being consistent with that, the USO in metro D.C. was an excellent choice. It goes to the soldier or the Marine at Bethesda or Walter Reed — it's just amazing."
At some point, if the books do well, Gen. Tata said, he would like to return to Fort Drum and donate to the USO that serves the 10th Mountain Division. He said he is anxiously awaiting a return to the north country to visit friends he made during his tenure here.
As for the books, "Sudden Threat" and Gen. Tata's writing have been compared to Tom Clancy — a comparison the general appreciates, but doesn't necessarily agree with. He said his novels have a more "on-the ground-perspective," where the characters drive the story. He tends to shy away from the technical aspects of things and goes after the emotion.
"My writing is more grounded in the reality of combat and reality of the bureaucracy inside the Beltway," he said. "Anyone can find out how quickly a bullet passes through a body, but they might not be able to capture the emotion of soldiers in combat on the ground. One of the reasons I write that way is because the emotion is in me."
