About The Officer by Michael E. Bistrica
When Lara, an up-and-coming singer/actress is scheduled to for a tour to entertain the troops during the Thanksgiving holiday, Captain Edward Madin is assigned as her escort by mistake. Overlooking his rigid professional manner, she realizes she has grown fond of him as the tour completes and, for both a publicity stunt and her own interest, she begins writing him letters while he is on assignment in the Middle East. Upon his return they meet, and their romance begins to blossom, but Edward constantly struggles with Lara’s celebrity status. Will tabloids and paparazzi drive these two apart, or can love truly conquer all?
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Author Bio:
Michael E. Bistrica was born in Youngstown, Ohio on 15 September 1957 the youngest son to John and Anna Marie Bistrica. He was raised in the Catholic Faith and attended church and elementary school at St Peter and Paul Church and School and then attended Ursuline High School. He entered the local state university, Youngstown State, majoring in engineering and joining Army ROTC. Graduated as a distinguished military cadet, he was commissioned in the regular army as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in mechanical engineering.
Completing his initial engineer officer training in the top 20%, he was assigned to the 1st Engineer Battalion at Ft Riley, KS. Volunteering for Korea he was assigned to the 2nd Engineer Battalion located at Camp Castle serving as platoon leader and as the battalion’s intelligence officer. Returning from Korea he attended the engineer officer advance course and again graduated in the top 20%. After completing airborne and air assault training, he was assigned to the 326th Engineer Battalion at Ft Campbell, KY and was the battalion adjutant, company commander B Company and as Assistant Division Engineer. After leaving Ft Campbell he became a ROTC Instructor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and then volunteered for Operation Desert Shield/Storm.
Returning from the middle east after six months he was sent to US Force Command, Fort McPherson, GA. When at Forces Command, he earned a master’s in technology management with a 4.0 GPA. Reassigned to the Sacramento District Officer of the Corps of Engineers where he oversaw the Civil Works Programs and Project Management Section responsible for flood control projects in seven western states. He returned to Georgia to serve with Third U.S. Army Engineers being responsible for the design and construction of projects in Qatar. He retired from the US Army in 1996 as a Major.
His first civilian job was as a project manager for a mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering design firm assisting in the design of numerous high-end hotels for Ritz-Carlton and Westin Hotels in the United States and overseas. Leaving that job, he became a project manager for a general contracting firm where he managed the mechanical, plumbing, and fire protection contracts, worth over $35 million in the construction of the $240 million Georgia World Congress Phase IV Expansion.
Finishing that project, he worked with a firm overseeing several projects once again at the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport and assisted in the independent technical review of the cost of construction of the U.S Army Corps of Engineers design for enhanced flood control protection for the city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. After a few years he found again working with a general contractor but this time he specialized in military construction at several posts in the southeastern U.S.
He first his wife, Karen, through a mutual friend in the mid-1980s when stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky. Two years later while in a ROTC position at Georgia Tech he met u with Karen again. Over time the relationship changed from friends to something more even though at first, he was not aware of it. Less than a year later he proposed to her, and they were married in the spring of 1990. We have one daughter, a granddaughter, and a great-grandson.