Single Harness: Your Neighbor's Memoir...You Just Never Know

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo., Oct. 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- For 24 years, he was part of an elite military unit you've never heard of . . . and probably never officially will. Now he is the last living member of the team, and he is telling his story -- or at least the parts of it he hasn't sworn to take with him to the grave.

He is Millard Avon Gregory, and of course that is a pen name. His story is Single Harness© (hardback ISBN 978-1-4969-0007-1, AuthorHouse, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and AuthorHouse).

Subtitled "Your Neighbor's Memoir . . . You Just Never Know," Single Harness is a collection of vignettes carved from Gregory's time in the unit that prove truth is stranger than fiction.

Gregory touches only briefly on the unit itself: six teams of three men, trained to go into the world's strongholds where ruthless dictators took refuge and where death squads terrorized their own people throughout the '60s, '70s and '80s, and adjust the course of history. Gregory initially volunteered for the Army during the Vietnam War, but the recruiters had other ideas. "We don't think you'll pull good in double harness," the sergeant who was interviewing Gregory told him, and with that, Gregory's life -- and those of countless other people who were liberated from violence by Gregory's unit over the years-- were irrevocably changed.

The unit itself would undoubtedly provide enough material to fill a book, if Gregory were inclined to spill his secrets. But it is the time between the missions, when Gregory lived the life of a civilian and built and sold several businesses as his "cover" career that provides the meat of Single Harness.

The author pulls very few punches when it comes to this part of his life, bringing the reader along on a Mexican jailbreak (one of his Team Members, who Gregory dubs "DR", landed himself in hot water after a dalliance with a police chief's mistress south of the border, so Gregory and his other Team Member, "Marlboro Man", sprung DR and the three hightailed it back onto U.S. soil); a night living like royalty in a five-star hotel in San Francisco thanks to some quick thinking and a cheap costume rental; and through the building of four successful businesses -- one of which Gregory won in a back-room backgammon game. He even tells how the boulder really came to be in the top of that tree.

Now 70, Gregory offers only a few details about the effects of his years of service. He speaks of lost sleep and faces he can't forget and scars that don't seem fully healed. But overall, Single Harness is a fun romp through the '60s and '70s and '80s, topped off with stories from the author's childhood in rural Indiana and presented with a good dose of dry humor. Readers are sure to be entertained.

"[Millard is] a strong writer, using Hemingway-like terseness but also showing a fondness for jocular understatement that barely conceals the violence of which he is capable," wrote Kirkus Review. "[Single Harness is] a riveting glimpse of extraordinary measures; ethically speaking, the reader will be the judge."

In order to continue protecting his identity, Gregory will not participate in face-to-face interviews or a book tour in association with the publication of Single Harness, but he is open to radio, podcast, and print interviews. Readers interested in learning more about the book can visit SingleHarness.com, which features audio interviews with the author and a blog run by a friend of Gregory. Originally written as a surprise for Gregory's now-86-year-old colonel, it is dedicated to the other 17 members of Gregory's unit. Single Harness is now available in hard cover, soft cover, and ebook editions.

Contact:
Jim Baughman
President
MCT, Inc
Representing Millard A. Gregory
307-739-7030
Email
http://www.singleharness.com/

SOURCE Millard A. Gregory