Ben was recently featured on Texas Standard The Daily National News Show of Texas.
Ben was interviewed by W.F. Strong for the Texas Standard The National Daily News Show of Texas about Yonderings: Trails and Memories of the Big Bend. Released on Oct. 12, 2022, this article covered a bit of Ben’s history as well as a brief overview of Strong’s thoughts about his book. Included is a short (almost 5 minute) audio interview with Ben.
Ben H. English
An eighth-generation Texan, Ben H. English was raised mostly in the Big Bend area and attended a one room schoolhouse in Terlingua. He served in the United States Marine Corps for seven years, taught a Criminal Justice program at the high school level and retired after 22 years as a trooper in the Texas Highway Patrol. He is also an honors graduate of Angelo State University with a BA in Government. Currently he lives in Alpine and writes on a variety of subjects.
History
A long-time student of history, Ben firmly believes that those who do not know theirs are doomed to make the same mistakes as have been made before. The lack of knowing one’s history, be it personal, familial, cultural or societal, is…Learn More
Life Experiences
Ben started out cowboying on his family’s ranches and by the age of ten was expected to do a man’s work in the saddle. By the time he… Learn More
Writing
Ben writes with a realistic feel in what he describes by using his varied life experiences as a guide, along with the insight gained from long friendships with the many extraordinary people he has called ‘friend’.
Always the explorer with a…Learn More
Explore More of Ben’s Online Presence
See Ben in Person
Ben’s Latest Books:
“I never saw a peace officer ask anyone what their politics were, and then refuse their needs because of the answer. A person’s skin pigment, their last name, the money in their bank account, none of that mattered.
All that mattered was someone needed help and the officer possessed the skills, as well as the burning desire, to provide it.
While only human and as internally flawed and prejudiced as any other; their true nature, their crowning glory in mortal life, is their ability to rise above those flaws and prejudices when called upon.
In a world of hungry, destructive wolves, they are the sheepdog who serves and protects the flock.
They are the heroes among us, and these are some of their stories…”
“The time is the eve of the First Gulf War.
The place is an abandoned World War II emergency landing strip for heavy bombers, nestled amid the near countless miles upon miles of wide openness in West Texas.
Here another climatic battle will be fought, while the rest of the world focuses on what would become known as Operation Desert Storm.
But in some ways, the stakes are even higher as men from other places and past conflicts gamble all that they are, and all they ever were, to prevent a catastrophic terrorist attack unthinkable before on an American city.
The key to either side’s success or failure? One old Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress, an enduring symbol from another war and ensuing catastrophe of a different era.
This relic of a not so distant past is named ‘The Uvalde Raider,’ and this is its story…”
If you would like a book signing in your area, please let your local library, book store, or civic group know.
I would like to thank Creative Texts Publishers for their continuing long term, multi book contract, as well as their enthusiasm and help in this process. They have treated me with the utmost attention, regard and respect.
In equal portions, I would like to thank my advance readers for their suggestions and many positive comments concerning the manuscript. I hope that you are reading this and will comment.
Finally I would like to thank you, the individual reader, for being so encouraging and supportive of my writing and books. They have succeeded in ways near unheard of for initial efforts.
I think you will find ‘The Uvalde Raider’ worthy of my second novel.
When one opens the pages to this book they step into another world and place, and even on occasions, another time. No matter what you may know about the lower Big Bend or think you know about the lower Big Bend, here are thoughts, maps and photographs that bring together a heretofore unachieved mosaic of this rugged, lonesome land. In effect, Out There is a work that others simply cannot compare to. Whether you might be a first-time visitor or have made many a journey into its more remote environs, there is so much contained within to both see as well as savor. It is a book meant to be read and re-read time and again. If home is where the heart is, even the first few paragraphs leave no doubt as to where the author’s resides. And that is only the beginning.