James W . Huston ( author ) James Webb Huston ( born October 26 , 1953 ) is an American author and lawyer , best known for his popular military and legal thrillers . A graduate of TOPGUN , he served as a Naval Flight Officer and worked in Naval Intelligence before going on to become a " New York Times " best - selling author . Early life . Huston grew up in West Lafayette , Indiana . His father , James A . Huston , was a Purdue University history professor and highly decorated World War II veteran who published several books on military and diplomatic history . In 2009 , James A . Huston was awarded the French Legion of Honor , the highest civilian decoration in France . James W . graduated from high school in 1971 , and attended the University of South Carolina on a Navy ROTC scholarship . Attending the program during the last years of the Vietnam War was tumultuous ; anti - war protests on campus were frequent , and many were directed at the ROTC . During his senior year he completed an exchange cruise on a French Navy destroyer out of Brest , the EE Kersaint . He then studied English Reformation history and English literature at the University of Warwick in Coventry , England . He graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1975 with a BA in History and a minor in English . He was commissioned into the U . S . Navy as an Ensign on the day of his graduation . United States Navy . After a year of flight training in Pensacola , Florida and a year of F - 14 Tomcat training at Naval Air Station Miramar , California , he became an F - 14 Naval Flight Officer and was assigned to fighter squadron VF - 84 — nicknamed the Jolly Rogers — based in Virginia Beach , Virginia . The unit flew off of the USS Nimitz , one of the largest warships in the world and the first of the Nimitz class of nuclear - powered aircraft carriers . VF - 84 participated in the making of " The Final Countdown " , a 1980 movie starring Kirk Douglas and Katharine Ross . Huston flew in many of the film ’ s flight scenes , and directed others . He was selected to attend the elite Navy Fighter Weapons School , popularly known as TOPGUN , and graduated in 1978 . After his tour with VF - 84 , Huston taught Seapower and Maritime Affairs at The Citadel , The Military College of South Carolina , from 1980 - 1981 . Lawyer . In 1981 , Huston resigned from active duty in order to attend law school at the University of Virginia . After graduating in 1984 , he moved to California to join San Diego - based law firm Gray Cary Ames & Frye , and began flying in the Navy Reserves out of NAS Miramar . After a few years , he transferred into the Naval Intelligence Reserves , where he remained — monitoring intelligence reports and briefing personnel when called upon — until retiring as a Commander in 1997 . He was elevated to partner at Gray Cary Ames & Frye in 1990 , and led the firm ’ s tort and product liability practice group . Huston joined the international law firm Morrison & Foerster as a partner in May 2004 . He is the chairman of the firm ’ s trial practice group , and has been involved in numerous high - profile cases . On September 2 , 2010 , Huston was named one of the top ten product liability litigators in the country by the legal newswire Law 360 . Inspiration for first novel . Writing op - eds for a local newspaper kick - started Huston ’ s literary interests in the early 1990s . After two years of writing editorial pieces for the " Escondido Times Advocate " ( now the " North County Times " ) and the " San Diego Union - Tribune " , he decided to try fiction . His first and second novels met with “ hundreds ” of rejection letters , and were never published . His third , " Balance Of Power " , combined Huston ’ s military and legal expertise with political intrigue and was an instant success , with film rights sold to Jerry Bruckheimer and the Walt Disney Company . The book was based on an obscure clause in the U . S . Constitution that had captured Huston ’ s imagination — Congress ’ s power to issue Letters of Marque and Reprisal — and he had found his voice . Balance of Power set the tone for his subsequent novels , which feature politics , law and military action . Influences and writing habits . Huston ’ s favorite author is Patrick O ’ Brian , who wrote the Aubrey - Maturin series of novels about the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars . He also admires the works of Ernest Hemingway and Marilynne Robinson — Hemingway for his crisp prose and captivating stories , and Robinson for her use of language and depth . Huston started out writing for an hour or so each night each night after his children went to sleep . He completed his first two novels on a computer but has dictated the drafts of each novel since , using voice - recognition software to convert his words into text . Family . Huston is the father of five grown children and lives near San Diego with his wife of 30 years , Dianna . He has two grandchildren . Recurring characters . Jim Dillon , attorney and top congressional aide . He appears in Balance of Power and The Price of Power . Lt . Kent " Rat " Rathman , versatile and legendary Navy SEAL . He was introduced in The Shadows of Power and reappears in Secret Justice .