Journalist, historian, and author Marc Leepson graduated from George Washington University after serving in the U.S. Army from 1967-69, including a year in the Vietnam War. He is the author of nine books, most recently: Ballad of the Green Beret, a biography of Army Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler (2017). His previous books include What So Proudly We Hailed: Francis Scott Key, A Life (2014), Lafayette: Idealist General (2011), and Desperate Engagement, the story of the Civil War Battle of Monocacy and the Confederate attack on Washington, D.C. (2007). He edited The Webster's New World Dictionary of the Vietnam War (1998) and wrote two books on health topics in the 1980s.
A former staff writer for Congressional Quarterly in Washington, D.C., he has been a freelance writer since 1986. He has written for many newspapers and magazines, including Preservation, Smithsonian, Military History, Civil War Times, America's Civil War, Vietnam magazine, the Washington Post, New York Times, New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. He has written entries for the Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Americana, and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. He is Senior Writer, Arts Editor editor, and columnist for The VVA Veteran, the magazine published by Vietnam Veterans of America.