David A. Clary is the author of "Adopted Son: Washington, Lafayette, and the Friendship That Saved the Revolution;""Rocket Man;" and most recently "Eagles and Empire: The United States, Mexico, and the Struggle for a Continent". Clary is the former Chief Historian of the U. S. Forest Service, has taught history at the university level, and lives in Roswell, New Mexico, with his wife, Beatriz.