Andy Harp

Andy Harp was born on the banks of the Mississippi River in the town of Helena, Arkansas. As a youth, his parents moved the family to rural Southern New Jersey, where he graduated from Vineland High School in 1969. While at VHS, he became a high school track star, which led to an athletic scholarship to American University in Washington, D.C., and his participation in, among many other things, running at Madison Square Garden in the U.S. Olympic Invitational. He graduated from American in 1973. He graduated from Mercer University’s Walter F. George School of Law in 1980.

After American and before law school, he signed up with the United States Marine Corps. As a young officer, he served with both the artillery and a small mountain warfare, arctic instructor survival group. He was a Regimental Battery Commander with the 11th Marines, and became Instructor in Charge of the Instructor Group at the Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, California. He also trained in the Arctic Circle and at Fort Greely, Alaska, where a typical day was 44 below zero. While in the Arctic and at Bridgeport, he lived in ice caves, rappelled off cliffs and out of helicopters, taught military cross country skiing, and taught both mountain and cold weather survival.

Upon graduation from law school, Harp began his legal career as a District Attorney in Cordele, Georgia, where he prosecuted felonies. At the same time, he continued his Marine Corps career in the Reserves. He rose through the ranks to become a colonel. He served in many billets and locations around the world. As a logistics officer, he served in South Korea and once briefed the Commandant of the Republic of Korea’s Marine Corps. He also served in Central America, the Persian Gulf, and Europe, and at the Pentagon. While at the Pentagon, he served in the Secretary of Defense’s Executive Support Center and with Reserve Affairs. In his final billet before retiring, he served as the Officer in Charge of the Crisis Action Team for Marine Forces Central Command and Marine Forces Pacific. Harp was mobilized for Operation Enduring Freedom. In 1997, he was elected National President of the Marine Corps Reserve Officer’s Association. His decorations include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, and Navy Commendation Medal.

A civil trial attorney after leaving the District Attorney’s Office, he has participated in cases in more than eight states, from Texas to Florida, in a practice built around the representation of injured railroad workers.

Much published in the legal field, Harp has also been a regular attendee of the Iowa Writers Workshop’s Summer Festival. Andy was recently inducted into the International Thriller Writers Association.

His first chapter from the forthcoming Will Parker thriller The Meggido Factor placed First Alternate at the Florida State Writing Competition.

A Northern Thunder, his initial novel, has received praise from both Marines and national reviewers (Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Midwest Book Review, etc.)

Harp has lived for the last thirty years in Columbus, Georgia. He and his wife Jane have four children.

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