Philip H. Red Eagle was born in Tacoma, Washington in 1945 and moved to Sitka, Alaska, when he was 14 years old. He received his high school diploma from Sitka Senior High School on 18 May 1963. He was in and out of college for four years, finally enlisting in 1967. After one WesPac tour on the USS Somers, DDG-34 in 1969-70, he made his next tour "In-Country" as a riverboat mechanic from August 1970 to January 1972. It is the observations and feelings from this tour that make up the background of his short stories. Red Earth is his first effort.