Bradley Mason Gates is a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. He holds a B.S. in education from Millersville University, in Pennsylvania, and a MPA in public administration from Golden Gate University, in California. During his career, Brad participated in Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada, and later commanded the Marine Corps artillery force in Beirut, Lebanon. In 1985, Brad received the General John A. Lejeune Award for Inspirational Leadership, and in 1987 he received the George Washington Honor Medal from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge. In 1984, Brad attended the 40th Anniversary of survivors of the Saipan suicide attack of 1944, the subject of this book. He subsequently spent almost ten years conducting personal interviews and other research on the attack, including a trip to Saipan in 1992. Brad and his wife Kathy, also a graduate of Millersville University, met while they were students. They have three children and five grandchildren.

Philippe Bohström, a land and marine archaeologist, received his master’s degree in classical archaeology from Gothenburg University and master’s degree in Near Eastern Archaeology and History from Tel Aviv University. He has participated in excavations in Israel, Greece, Italy, and Sweden, and has written extensively about archaeology for new outlets and journals in America, Europe, and Asia for such publications as National Geographic, Haaretz, Jerusalem Post, Courrier International, and Jewish Chronicle. His book Troy was published by the Swedish Military Association in 2022.

John Andrew Morrow is a graduate of the University of Toronto. He has taught at numerous universities and reached the rank of Professor of Foreign Languages. He was recognized as a Master Teacher and Distinguished Faculty Member, received an Interfaith Service Award, and a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition. A prolific author and passionate activist, he is considered one of the most important American Muslim scholars.

Stuart Walton is a cultural historian, novelist, and critic based in southwest England. He is the author of An Excursion through Chaos (2021), Introducing Theodor Adorno (2018), In The Realm of the Senses: A Materialist Theory of Seeing and Feeling (2016), A Natural History of Human Emotions (2004), and Out Of It: A Cultural History of Intoxication (2001; 2016), as well as a number of books on food and drink.

The Synodal School of Liturgical Music was founded in 1992 to train choir conductors, singers, and church readers in the liturgical music tradition of the Russian Orthodox Church, focusing primarily on the parishes of the Russian diaspora. The school offers courses in music theory, sight-singing, Church Slavonic, church music history, liturgics, liturgical performance practice, voice, and choral methods. It is based at the Holy Dormition Convent in Nanuet, New York.

Father Andrei Papkov is a Russian Orthodox Archpriest and Founder and President of the Synodal School of Liturgical Music of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). He holds a master’s degree in vocal performance from New England Conservatory and is the chairman of the Synodal Liturgical Music Commission (ROCOR).

Father Andrei Papkov is a Russian Orthodox Archpriest and Founder and President of the Synodal School of Liturgical Music of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). He holds a master’s degree in vocal performance from New England Conservatory and is the chairman of the Synodal Liturgical Music Commission (ROCOR).

Irina S. Zhushchikhovskaya is Senior Researcher at the Institute of History, Archaeology, and Ethnology of Peoples of the Far East, Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok. She is a specialist in ancient pottery and has published over 150 works on prehistoric ceramics.

Natalia K. Danilova is Senior Researcher in the Department of Archaeology and Ethnography, Institute of Humanitarian Research and Problems of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Science, Yakutsk. Her fields of scientific interest include mythology, ritual culture, and sacred geography of the native peoples of Siberia. She is the author of more than 100 publications.

Translator: Richard L. Bland, a retired Arctic archaeologist and translator, has translated over 250 articles and books, primarily from Russian and German, into English, including The Peoples of Ancient Siberia: An Archeological History by A. P. Okladnikov and Warfare in the Russian Arctic by A. K. Nefedkin, and the three-volume Russian Colonization of Alaska by A. V. Grinev.

Editor: Elena A. Okladnikova is an archaeologist with specialties in cultural history, sociology of spiritual life, rock art, social technologies, social anthropology, and ethnosociology. She has led archaeological expeditions in Siberia and Altai and is the author of over 400 scientific, educational, and methodological works. She is presently Professor in the Departmentof Sociology at the Institute of History and Social Sciences of the Herzen State Pedagogical University, in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Translator: Richard L. Bland, a retired Arctic archaeologist and translator, has translated over 250 articles and books, primarily from Russian and German, into English, including The Peoples of Ancient Siberia: An Archeological History by A. P. Okladnikov and Warfare in the Russian Arctic by A. K. Nefedkin, and the three-volume Russian Colonization of Alaska by A. V. Grinev.

Peter Martins was the Ballet Master in Chief of New York City Ballet for 35 years, the only person to preside over the company as long as its founder, George Balanchine. Born in Denmark, Martins began his association with NYCB in 1967, when he was invited to dance the title role in George Balanchine’s Apollo during the company’s appearance at the Edinburgh Festival. He then performed as a guest artist for three years before joining the company as a principal dancer in 1970. Prior to his retirement from dancing in 1983, Martins performed a wide variety of roles and was lauded for his outstanding partnering skills and noble stage presence. In 1981, Martins was named Ballet Master, a title he shared with Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and John Taras. From 1983 to 1989, he served as Co-Ballet Master in Chief with Robbins, running day-to-day operations. He assumed sole directorship of the company in 1990 and was also Chairman of the Faculty of the School of American Ballet, NYCB’s official school. In 2000, founded the New York Choreographic Institute.
Martins began his career as a choreographer in 1977. He has created nearly 90 ballets set to music by composers as diverse as Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Wynton Marsalis, and John Adams. His full-length productions for New York City Ballet include The Sleeping Beauty (1991), Swan Lake (1999), Romeo + Juliet (2007), and La Sylphide (2015). Martins’ autobiography, Far From Denmark, was published in 1982. Among other awards, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark made him a Knight of Dannebrog, a Knight of the First Order, and, in 2013, a Commander of the Knights of Dannebrog, Denmark’s highest civilian honor. In 2008, the French government made him a Commander in the Order of Arts and Letter. That same year, Martins was inducted into the National Museum of Dance’s Hall of Fame, in Saratoga Springs, New York.