The Nomad Scrolls: August 2015

Quick Fire Q&A with Dr. Robert G. Williscroft

1. Coffee or tea? Coffee

2. Favorite book? Heinlein - The Past Through Tomorrow (but I have other "favorites" as well)

3. If you could have lunch with one famous person (past or present), who would it be? Ronald Reagan (or Thomas Jefferson)

4. Favorite quote? "I am the captain of my ship and the master of my fate."

5. If you could live in anywhere in the galaxy, where would that be?

No way to answer this. I probably would choose a place, and then we would discover another place that is more appealing, etc.

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 novel Operation Ivy Bells.

In NOAA Dr. Williscroft directed diving operations throughout the Pacific and Atlantic. As a certified diving instructor for both 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 World-wide. 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.

Dr. Williscroft has written extensively on terrorism and related subjects. He is the author of a popular book on current events published by Pelican Publishing: The Chicken Little Agenda – Debunking Experts’ Lies, now in its second edition as an eBook, and a new 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 novel, Slingshot, is in preproduction. It is a prequel to The Starchild Compact, and tells the story of the construction of the World’s first Space Launch Loop. He is currently working on The Iapetus Federation, a sequel to The Starchild Compact, that tells the story of the World falling under the rule of a planet-wide Islamic Caliphate, where the Founders establish the Iapetus Federation, a loose federation of free off-world communities that operates under an updated model based on the U.S. Constitution, and carries on the traditions of free enterprise and individual accountability throughout the Solar System.

Dr. Williscroft is an active member of the venerable Adventurers’ Club of Los Angeles, where he is the Editor of the Club’s monthly magazine. He lives in Centennial, Colorado, with his wife, Jill, whom he met upon his return from the South Pole in 1982 and finally married in 2010, and their twin college boys.

Twitter: @RGWilliscroft

Facebook: robert.williscroft

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/argee/

http://www.starchildcompact.com