• University of Maryland College Park — B.A. (summa cum laude) (1982)
• Graduate study at George Mason University (1983)

• Company Military Historians
• National Rifle Association
• Arlington Historical Society
• Fairfax Historical Society
• Rochester Historical Society

Non-fiction

• The NCO Guide, Stackpole (Harrisburg, PA), 1982, 3rd edition (with Dennis D. Perez), 1989.
• A Travel Guide to Military Installations, Stackpole, 1983, 2nd edition published as A Guide to Military Installations, 1988, 5th edition, 1996.
• A Dictionary of Soldier Talk, Scribner (New York City), 1984 (with John Elting and Ernest Deal) .
• Inside the VC and NVA: The Real Story of North Vietnam's Armed Forces, Ballantine, 1992 (with Michael Lee Lanning) .
• The Life and Times of Sergeant Major of the Army William G. Bainbridge, Ballantine, 1992 (with William G. Bainbridge).
• A Concise Encyclopedia of Combat Commanders, Berkley Publishing (New York City), 1996 (with Walter J. Boyne).

As editor

• Francis Grose, The Mirror's File: Advice to the Officers of the British Army, with a Biographical Sketch of the Life and a Bibliography of the Works of Captain Francis Grose, F.S.A., Owlswick, 1978 (also wrote introduction).
• Guardians of the Republic (A History of the non-commissioned officer corps of the U.S. Army), Random House (New York City), 1992.
• Operation Thirty-Four Alpha (history of U.S.-controlled commando operations in North Vietnam), Ballantine, 1992.

Fiction

• The Soldier's Prize (novel), Ballantine (New York City), 1986.

Science fiction

The StarFist Saga (with David Sherman)

• First to Fight, (1997)
• School of Fire, (1998)
• Steel Gauntlet, (1999)
• Blood Contact, (1999)
• TechnoKill, (2000)
• Hangfire, (2000)
• Kingdom's Swords, (2002)
• Kingdom's Fury, (2003)
• Lazarus Rising, (2003)
• A World of Hurt, (2004)
• Flashfire, (2006)
• Firestorm, (2007)
• Wings of Hell, (2008)

The StarFirst: Force Recon Saga (with David Sherman)

• Backshot, (2005)
• PointBlank, 2006
• Recoil, 2008

Novels not part of a series

• Jedi Trial (with David Sherman) (2004)