Earl H. Tilford, Jr.

Dr Earl H. Tilford, Jr., is an associate professor of history at Troy State University in Montgomery and visiting professor of military history at the Air Command and Staff College. He earned his BA and MA degrees in history at the University of Alabama and his PhD in American military history at George Washington University. Dr Tilford retired from the Air Force in 1989 after a career that included tours as an intelligence officer in Thailand and at Headquarters Strategic Air Command. From 1975 to 1979, he was part of a team of military and civilian historians writing the official history of Air Force operations during the Vietnam War. Dr Tilford taught history at the US Air Force Academy before becoming associate editor and then editor of the Air University Review. He began writing Setup in 1987 during an assignment as a research fellow at the Air University Center for Aerospace Doctrine, Research, and Education. Dr Tilford is the author of The United States Air Force Search and Rescue in Southeast Asia, 1961-1975 and more than 20 articles pertaining to the Vietnam War. He teaches courses on the Vietnam War at Troy State University in Montgomery, Auburn University at Montgomery, and the University of Alabama. Dr Tilford pioneered elective courses on the Vietnam War at the Air Force's Air War College and the Air Command and Staff College . He has lectured extensively at numerous colleges and universities in the United States and Europe. Dr Tilford lives in Prattville, Alabama, with his wife, three children, and a cat named Clausewitz.

[from page xiii of Setup: What the Air Force Did in Vietnam and Why, 1991]