Born in Winfield, Kansas in 1949, Steven Greenwell, like his alter-ego Art, had childhood dreams of going to West Point. He entered the United States Air Force Academy in 1967, completed jump school at Fort Benning in 1970, and graduated from USAFA in 1971, a proud member of the 13th Class. After serving five years as a Staff Officer, he left the Air Force to pursue a career in medicine. He completed his Internship and Army Flight Surgeon Course in 1982 and became an Army Medical Corps Officer, assigned as Flight Surgeon to Camp Walker in Taegu, Korea.

Steve earned his Expert Field Medical Badge in 1984, and served two more tours in Korea, where he received a 1st Degree Black Belt in Hapkido and met his future wife, Hiangwoo. He served four other overseas tours of duty in Panama, the Sinai Desert, Germany and Alaska. His degrees include an M.D. (U of Kansas School of Medicine); an M.A. in Business Management (U of Northern Colorado), an M.S. in Mathematics (Colorado State U), and a B.S. in Mathematics (U.S. Air Force Academy). A graduate of the Army Command and General Staff College, he retired from the Army in 2000 with the rank of Colonel.

Steve’s daughter Saige loves his stories about “the old days,” and after hearing him talk for many years about “someday writing a book,” Hiangwoo signed him up for a creative writing class. Twenty years later, The Blue Zoo is the happy result