Pelton was born July 25, 1955, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. At age ten, he became the youngest student ever to attend St John's Cathedral Boy's School a Canadian survival school in Selkirk, Manitoba. The school was later closed down after the deaths of a number of students. Pelton went on to become a lumberjack, boundary cutter, tunneler, driller and blaster's assistant before getting his first job as a copywriter when he was 17 in Toronto, working for the ad agency BBDO, having originally been working in the mailroom. He moved to the United States where he worked for various multimedia companies that did product launches like working directly with Steve Jobs with the Lisa launch and Macintosh launch. In his mid forties he retired from the business world and focused his time on understanding conflict. Pelton quickly made a name for himself traveling and reporting from the dirty wars, rebel camps and war zones. He got his break as a writer while reporting on the Camel Trophy, an annual event in which teams from around the world competed by overcoming some of the world's most hostile natural environments in Land Rovers. He was with the U.S. team and published his account in Soldier of Fortune.

He licensed his content to companies like Microsoft and sold his businesses to turn full time to conflict coverage in the mid 90's. He began with a two book deal from Random House, a television series from Discovery and a major web event with ABCNews.com

While in Uganda he missed a bomb assassination attempt against him by the ADF, an islamic group, by 10 minutes at the Speke's Hotel. In January 2003, Pelton was assigned by Discovery and National Geographic to do a television special and article on the Darien Gap. Pelton and two 22 year old travelers were ambushed, killing one Kuna Indian and injuring one other. The group was then kidnapped and marched at gunpoint through the Darien Gap by the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) and marched at gunpoint across the 90 mile jungle trail over the 10 days before being released.

While Pelton was being held, Commandate Roberto of the AUC and a column of militia then brutally decapitated and disemboweled the leaders of the village of Paya with whom Pelton had stayed. They also burnt a number of houses in their efforts to punish the Indians for supporting the FARC. When AUC leader Carlos Castano finally learned of the identity of the hostages, he ordered Pelton and his companions released and issued a press release to Reuters stating that they were being held for their safety.

Pelton contributed to National Geographic Adventure as both a Contributing Editor and a long running Columnist from January 2001 to 2007. In December 2007 he released his article on Blackwater Worldwide. He was involved in negotiations with the President of Equatorial Guinea regarding the early release of coup plotters, Nick du Toit who had worked for Executive Outcomes in the mid-1990s. The story behind the coup and his efforts to free Nick du Toit and Simon Mann are documented in the May 2008 Men's Journal "How to Stage a Coup".

In Dec of 2008 Pelton was researching and traveling the Horn of Africa with pirates and with an anti-piracy crew researching the piracy and anti-piracy industry. In January 2009 Pelton resumed his classic immersion style coverage by going inside the Army's controversial Human Terrain Teams.

In a return to his background doing licensed products for Lucasfilm, Disney, Marvel and others Pelton has also released his first signature survival product, a 3 inch knife called the RAT DPx H?E?S?T (Hostile Environment Survival Tool) at www.dpxgear.com. The knife is featured along with some of Pelton's favorite gear in a profile in the October 2009 Men's Journal. According to a 2009 radio, TV interviews and newspaper articles Pelton has spent a year as an advisor to the commander of ISAF and USFOR-A in Afghanistan.'

A front page New York Times article on March 14, 2010 and other articles in Mother Jones and the Washington Post noted that Pelton was involved in providing a significant amount of high level insight, access and advice to the senior ISAF command on Afghanistan and Pakistan via a subscription website similar to his IraqSlogger venture in Iraq. The New York Times corrected its assertions that Pelton was a contractor two months later with follow up articles about the correction in the Washington Post, Deutsche Welle and other outlets.

Pelton has built a career around his own unique experiential style of reportage and documentary filmmaking, spending time with many different terrorist, rebel or insurgent groups around the world, often returning with exclusive and unique footage. Pelton began the "SoJo" concept or solo journalist concept for ABC News in 1996. Pelton filed copy, photos and video as he went to the world's longest running hotspots. The series called ABC News"Dangerous Places" had a viewership of 800,000 people per day (second highest rated web event at the time after the death of Diana). Peter Jennings' documentary crew tried to document Pelton's to Bougainville, Afghanistan and the Southern Sudan but Bob Woodruff and Jay Ananai eventually deemed the assignment too risky and abandoned their attempts to follow Pelton.

Writing projects

Pelton began in publishing as a publisher having purchased and later sold the Fielding travel guide concession named after Temple Fielding. Pelton had worked as a copywriter at age 17 for BBDO in Toronto but has no formal education. He has a high school degree from Mount Douglas Senior Secondary in Victoria, B.C.

Robert Young Pelton's first major writing project was his breakthrough guide to conflict; The World's Most Dangerous Places. The massive 1000 page plus book was disguised as a travel guide and written in a humorous and apolitical style. The first edition was written in 1993 and it currently is in its fifth edition. The mascot of the book is Mr. DP, a laughing skull that has been seen stickered on AK's and in bars around the world. Mr DP can be seen at the History Bar in the Horn of Africa and the Gandamak Lodge in Kabul.

Hunter, Hammer and Heaven is a 2002 book on his journey into three wars in three tiny countries Chechnya, Sierra Leone and Bougainville were examples of a jihad against the Russians, a mercenary war for resources and an eco war to preserve a native lifestyle.

Pelton has written about contemporary private military contractors (Licensed to Kill, Hired Guns in the War on Terror), as well as his experiences with US Special Forces in the opening weeks in the war on terror. He has also written a fictionalized account of his early life, entitled Raven, as well as an autobiography entitled The Adventurist.

Magazines

Pelton began writing feature stories for National Geographic Adventure and then continued writing a column entitled, "Pelton's World" for National Geographic Adventure. His feature stories covered his journeys into Afghanistan, Iraq and Colombia.

National Geographic Adventure columns

"Pelton's World" column from National Geographic Adventure Magazine

• "The Good Books", June 2006
• "Kidnap Course", May 2006
• "Global Outreach", March 2006
• "Travel Clubs", February 2006
• "Packing Tips", December 2005
• "Now You Can Go Zones", November 2005
• "Military Vacations", October 2005.
• "Overland Expeditions", September 2005
• "Solo Travel", August 2005
• "Self Defence", June 2005.
• "Motorcycle Trips", May 2005
• "Travel Guides", October 2004
• "Cheap Airfares", December 2004
• "Piracy"
• "The Hunt for Bin Laden", March 2004

Pelton currently writes for Men's Journal and has covered topics on Blackwater, the U.S. military human terrain teams, mercenaries and pirates. According to Bladeforums Pelton will be publishing a magazine entitled "Dangerous" with well known survival expert Jeff Randall of Randall Adventure Training.

Interviews

One of the cornerstones of Pelton's quests has been to track down, meet up with and interview some of the world's most dangerous and wanted men. In some cases his unique access on the battlefield has led to troops or insurgents bringing him to interview high profile prisoners.

A partial list of Pelton's interviews:

• John Walker Lindh "The American Taliban" (Captured by Northern Alliance forces and rescued by Pelton)

• Aleksey Galkin ; of the Russian GRU (captured by Chechen rebels and implicated Russia in the bombing of apartment buildings that led to the second war in Chechyna.

• Hashim Salamat of the MILF in the Southern Philippines;

• "Mono Jojoy", "Tiro fijo" Marulando, Alphonso Cano and the top FARC leadership in Colombia;

• Francis Ona, the self proclaimed leader of Mekamui on the island of Bougainville;

• Abdul Rashid Dostum;

• Ahmed Shah Massoud and the Northern Alliance leadership in the Panjshir Valley

• The Chechen, Georgian and Turkish mafyia

• Al Qaeda, in both Europe and Afghanistan, documented in his book "Hunter, Hammer and Heaven" and his TV special on Afghanistan.

• Taliban leadership in Afghanistan in their first television interview (including Mullah Omar who would only allow his voice to be recorded)

• imprisoned South African mercenary Nick Du Toit and President Obiang of Equatorial Guinea during his attempts to free Nick from a 33 year prison sentence for attempting to overthrow the country

• Erik Prince, the owner of Blackwater USA.

• the leadership of the AUC (Autodefensas Unides Colombiano). The right wing death squads of Colombia

• Leadership of Communist Rebels in the Philippines and Manilla

• Leadership of the LURD rebels in Liberia

• Kamajors in Sierra Leone

• the SPLA in Southern Sudan

• Drug organizations in Peru and Colombia

Rebel, Jihadi and Insurgent Groups

In order to gain access Pelton has spent an unusual amount of time living with, traveling with and documenting some of the world's best known insurgent groups. Some of the groups Pelton has lived with and interviewed include, the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, the LURD rebels in Liberia, MILF in the Southern Philippines, Bougainville Revolutionary Army, the SPLA in Southern Sudan, the Taliban in Afghanistan, the FARC and AUC in Colombia, and the Chechen rebels.

His access and interviews initially were to create "The World's Most Dangerous Places". His unusual and death-defying efforts to get this access soon then morphed into his TV series and then into a series of other books and film projects.

Pelton has shown how he gets access and world exclusive interviews in his TV series "The World's Most Dangerous Places" for the Discovery Channel.

Pelton has also investigated from the inside the drug business in Colombia and Peru, mafyia in Georgia and Turkey, and bounty hunting in Mexico.

The New York Times reported in March 2010 that the commander of ISAF and JUONS mandated contract for Pelton's research and publishing work in Afghanistan was used by a Department of Defense official who diverted the money to create a clandestine network of contractors as illegal intelligence operatives collecting targeting information (location, movements, contacts) on civilians and members of the taliban and Haqqani network in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In one case Pelton noted that a video he had been given was used to strike insurgents in Pakistan.

Television Series

Pelton exec produced and hosted seven one hour specials for Discovery from 1998 until 2003. According to the site www.comebackalive.com (which has video clips and a timeline) This was the line up of Pelton's series:

1) "The Crescent and the Cross" - first footage of a new communist rebel group on the island of Negros (New People's Army), the MILF, pirates, a Crucifixion and Pelton tracks down the most wanted man in the Philippines, the man who killed Special Forces legend Nick Rowe

2) "The Lion of the Pansjshir" - Pelton enters Afghanistan to find Ahmed Shah Massoud and then he enters the war on both sides. First with the Northern Alliance and then the feared Taliban.

3) "Home of the Brave" - A journey through America on a motorcycle to find rebels, revolutionaries and militias. Pelton visits with country & western singer Willie Nelson, native American activist Russell Means, motorcycle icon Peter Fonda and finds an American jihadi Aqil Collins who trained in terrorist training camps run by Osama bin Laden

4) "Inside Afghanistan" - In his first post 9/11 show Pelton reenters Afghanistan, this time he is only outside witness to war with a Special Forces team that fights on horseback with a brutal warlord, General Rashid Dostum. He is in the battle of Qali Jangi and finds an American jihadi named John Walker Lindh, introducing the world to the first American al Qaeda member ever interviewed on the battlefield

5) "Inside Liberia" - Pelton enters a little known war in which he is surrounded by armed child soldiers in a brutal fight to the death. The rag tag LURD rebels and Pelton's group is surrounded by the violent forces of Charles Taylor. Pelton becomes close to the Small Boys Unit, a group of child soldiers and we meet "Survival" a 5 year old gun toting killer who befriends Pelton.

6) "Inside Colombia" - Pelton is the first outside to interview and meets with the leaders (Marulando, Raul Reyes, Mono Jojoy, Alphonso Cano) of the deadly left wing FARC rebel group. Barely escaping being kidnapped by Mono Jojoy at a drunken party. Pelton then switches sides and searches for the right wing death AUC squads. While waiting he provides a rare inside view on the cocaine trade from growing to picking to processing the final product.

7) "Kidnapped" - Pelton intended to be back from vacation to film a show about 9/11 in America but was kidnapped. His footage of the brutal kidnap is interwoven with previous trips to Grozny, Chechnya where he interviews a captured Russian spy Aleksi Galkin, then to Uganda where a young terrorist puts a bomb under Pelton's table at the Speke's Hotel seriously injuring a number of patrons. Pelton then spends a long bloody night in Kampala, Uganda at other bomb sites trying to save shattered victims before heading to meet the SPLA in Southern Sudan and finally Peru in which Pelton's journey inside the drug war is cut short when he is hit and seriously injured by a car while riding his motorcycle on a mountain road.

Although the WMDP series under Discovery's Mike Cheskin were renewed for another 8 shows, Pelton's series of specials were canceled by Discovery after Pelton left for Iraq.The DVD versions are available on www.comebackalive.com

Documentaries

Pelton produced "House of War" with award winning documentary director Paul Yule to document the largest and most bloody battle in Operation Enduring Freedom, the Battle of Qali-i-Jangi. Pelton went to Iraq to cover the war for ABC Investigative and then led a search for a find of chemical tipped rockets for CBS's 60 Minutes. Pelton eventually chose to stay along the Syrian border with insurgents and later document evidence of mass graves around the country, traveling in a red Bentley previously owned by Uday Hussein.

Pelton would return to Iraq in late 2004 to live with a Blackwater USA security team running Route Irish in Baghdad while researching his book Licensed to Kill, Hired Guns in the War on Terror.

National Geographic TV hired Pelton to go inside the world of private security contractors for the film Guns For Hire.

Pelton continues to be featured in a number of upcoming documentaries on a diverse variety of subjects that range from mercenaries, child soldiers, security contractors and conflict. They are a diverse selection including "Iraq for Sale" by Robert Greenwald, "Shadow Company" by Nick Bicanic, "Weapons of Mass Deception" by Danny Schecter, "Children at War" and "Bounty Hunting" by Bobby Williams as well as news documentaries and interviews by Al Jazeera, CNN, Dan Rather and many others.

Personal Appearances

Pelton has promoted his controversial agenda of experiential education in selected venues like TED, colleges, television and long form radio like Coast to Coast. His view that people must take responsibility for their own education, safety and insight and form their own opinions outside of the media and political environment has created a following at Black Flag Café.