A little about who you’re reading.

My name is Aaron Courts. I am a native Texan and grew up in the Southeast part of our great state. I enlisted in the Marine Corps before my senior year of high school and was trained as an ammunition technician in the Corps. I met my future wife, a Marine veteran herself, during my first enlistment and married her some 10 years later.

I became a Warrant Officer around that time and retired as a Chief Warrant Officer 4 in 2021. I had countless adventures while on active duty and deployed to, or served in, multiple locations across the United States, Middle East, Africa, and the Pacific. While in uniform, I was a company commander, explosives safety officer and program manager for most of the Marine Corps’ installations on the East Coast, and the officer-in-charge of ammunition supply facilities in Okinawa, Japan, and Camp Pendleton, California.

My wife's passion for canine detection led her to become an explosives detection canine handler in Seattle. I followed her there after my retirement and was licensed as a Residential Mortgage Loan Officer in Texas, Virginia, and Washington before she was promoted to a canine training instructor and relocated to the TSA National Canine Training Center aboard Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Tx. With that, we packed up, again, and moved back to The Great State of Texas!

We have four children: one a college grad, paramedic, and firefighter; one attending college in Louisiana and working towards a degree in finance; and two in grade school who are into art and poetry. I enjoy learning new things, a good conversation, music, film, reading and writing, outdoors, marksmanship, woodworking, a nice bourbon, a kick you in the mouth cabernet, and spending time with my family now that I am retired from active uniformed service.

In addition to spending time with the family and the other activities listed, I write. I have been an honorable mention and long listed in several international writing competitions. I have a BA in Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University, and I am an MFA candidate in writing at Vermont College of Fine Arts. In addition to writing for The Sword & Pen, I established Pane Publishing Company, LLC at the end of 2023, and we are proud to be certified by the Texas Veterans Commission as a Texas Veteran-Owned Business.

My philanthropic passions include leading a creative writing workshop series for a National Veteran nonprofit called Patrol Base Abbate and serving as an ambassador for The Veteran Pen Pal Project in The Great State of Texas.

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