Dr. Robert G. Williscroft served twenty-three years in the U.S. Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He commenced his service as an enlisted nuclear Submarine Sonar Technician in 1961, was selected for the Navy Enlisted Scientific Education Program in 1966, and graduated from University of Washington in Marine Physics and Meteorology in 1969. He returned to nuclear submarines as the Navy’s first Poseidon Weapons Officer. Subsequently, he served as Navigator and Diving Officer on both catamaran mother vessels for the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle. Then he joined the Submarine Development Group One out of San Diego as the Officer-in-Charge of the Test Operations Group, conducting “deep-ocean surveillance and data acquisition”—which forms the basis for his Cold War Mac McDowell Missions. Bestselling Operation Ivy Bells is the first book in the series and tells the story of Navy divers tapping into Soviet underwater communications cables. Operation Ice Breaker, the second book in the series, tells the story of placing top secret acoustic arrays under the ice pack in the high Arctic. Subsequent books detail the capture of an abandoned Soviet Alfa-class sub, laying acoustic arrays near Antarctica, preventing a South African nuclear test, and interdicting South China Sea pirates.

In NOAA, Dr. Williscroft directed diving operations throughout the Pacific and Atlantic. As a certified diving instructor for NOAA, the National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI), and the Multinational Diving Educators Association (MDEA), he taught over 3,000 individuals both basic and advanced SCUBA diving. He authored four diving books, developed the first NAUI drysuit course, developed advanced curricula for mixed gas and other specialized diving modes, and developed and taught a NAUI course on the Math and Physics of Advanced Diving. His doctoral dissertation for California Coast University, A System for Protecting SCUBA Divers from the Hazards of Contaminated Water, was published by the U.S. Department of Commerce and distributed to Port Captains worldwide. He also served three shipboard years in the high Arctic conducting scientific baseline studies, and thirteen months at the geographic South Pole in charge of National Science Foundation atmospheric projects.

After retiring in 1985, Dr. Williscroft served as CEO of the largest editorial service in the United States, and founded a publishing company, Romar Books, that published the first book ever to be produced entirely by computer until it was electronically transmitted to the printer—The Farms of Garfield County. Romar Books also published a landmark book on the Kennedy assassination, The Ruby-Oswald Affair. He sold the publishing firm to serve as Chief Staff Officer for a consortium of five marine industry related firms in San Diego, designing, building, and installing hospital hyperbaric systems, designing and building specialized ships, and running a ferry service in California and Hawaii. In 1994 he moved to Philadelphia, and focused on writing, real estate, and the stock market. In 1997, he joined Morgan Stanley in Los Angeles as a Series 7 stockbroker. Since 1999 Dr. Williscroft has been independent.

Dr. Williscroft has written extensively on terrorism and related subjects. He is the author of a popular book on current events, The Chicken Little Agenda—Debunking Experts’ Lies, and a children’s book series, Starman Jones, in collaboration with Dr. Frank Drake, world-famous director of the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe and the SETI Institute.

Dr. Williscroft’s 1^st novel in The Starchild Saga, Slingshot, tells the story of the construction of the world’s first Space Launch Loop. Slingshot was launched at the Seattle International Space Elevator Conference in August 2015. His 2^nd novel in The Starchild Saga, The Daedalus Files, takes place in the world of Slingshot. In four novelettes, Daedalus, Daedalus LEO, Daedalus Squad, and Daedalus Combat, Dr. Williscroft follows the U.S. Navy SEALS Winged Insertion Command (SWIC) and its development of the Gryphon hard wingsuit for combat drops from Low Earth Orbit. Book three, The Starchild Compact, is based on the discovery that Saturn’s moon Iapetus is actually a derelict starship, and how Earth explorers eventually meet with the descendants of the builders who originally arrived on the starship and populated the Earth long ago. In book four, The Iapetus Federation: Exodus From Earth, the Federation expands Solar Systemwide, while a new Caliphate sweeps Earth. The Starchild Institute creates wormhole portals to enable the Exodus. Earth becomes medieval, while human focus shifts to the Iapetus Federation. Humans settle every potentially habitable spot in the Solar System and begin expanding into the rest of the Galaxy.

Icicle—A Tensor Matrix, is a hard science fiction story about a wealthy engineer in today’s world who has terminal cancer and arranges for his head to be cryonically preserved. He wakes up about a century later inside an electronic matrix. He becomes the spearhead of humanity’s defensive effort against an invading space fleet operating under the Dark Forest Theory (Like hunters in a “dark forest,” a civilization can never be certain of an alien civilization’s true intentions. The extreme distances between stars creates an insurmountable “chain of suspicion,” where any two civilizations cannot communicate well enough to dissipate mistrust, making conflict inevitable.) This is the first of four (and soon to be five) books in The Oort Chronicles.

Other notable achievements:
■ Qualified Captain, any ship size, any ocean
■ Private pilot
■ Certified Diving Paramedic
■ California Paralegal (wrote briefs for California Superior Courts and Courts of Appeal, Federal Courts, and both California and U.S. Supreme Courts)
■ Real estate developer
■ Personal friend of President George H.W. Bush
■ Personal friend of Washington State Governor Dixie Lee Ray

Dr. Williscroft is an active member of the Colorado Author’s League, Independent Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Authors, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association, Libertarian Futurist Society, Los Angeles Adventurers’ Club, Mensa, Military Officer’s Association, U.S. Sub Vets, American Legion, and NRA. He lives in Centennial, Colorado, with his wife, Jill, and her two cats.

Dr. Williscroft’s military decorations include:
Good Conduct Medal
National Service Defense Medal
Antarctic Service Medal (w. winterover device)
Unit citation (w. bronze star)
Submarine Dolphins (Silver & Gold)
Fleet Ballistic Missile Patrol Device (w. silver star & 2 bronze stars)
Navy Saturation Diving Officer Pin
NOAA Diving Officer Pin