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In 1966, Bob Rogers was a Distinguished Military Graduate at South Carolina State University. He served his country as an army officer for four years, departing at the rank of captain in 1970. Bob was a paratrooper and led soldiers of the army’s A Troop, 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry during the Vietnam War and was a charter member of the Baltimore, Maryland chapter of the 9th and 10th (Horse) Cavalry Association.
Bob joined IBM in 1970 and held many staff and management positions and retired after 33 years with the company.
He is the founder and president of Global Medical Data, Inc. His company provides electronic health records services for physician practices and clinics in North Carolina and Texas.
Bob’s first novel, Will and Dena, was published in October 2009. His next novel, First Dark, was released in December of 2011.
Bob and his wife have a daughter, four sons, three daughters-in-law, a son-in-law, and six grandchildren. He and his wife make their home in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Reviewed by Alice DiNizo for Readers' Favorite
It is the Civil War year of 1863 and the main character Isaac is sixteen and a slave on the Tiffany plantation in South Carolina. He works for the plantation blacksmith but dreams of escaping from Tiffany and eventually becoming a soldier when he turns eighteen in two years. Isaac talks with his friend Caleb about escaping in Brer Rabbit folktale words. He eventually engineers a clever but hazardous escape by rowing south in a canoe. Isaac realizes his dream of becoming a soldier and, with Caleb, becomes a Buffalo soldier on the American southwestern frontier. Isaac meets and falls in love with Rachel, once a slave on the Taylor and then on Bender Plantations in South Central Mississippi, but the demands of a soldier's life takes Isaac away from Rachel who must endure the violence and bigotry of the Reconstruction years. Isaac and Caleb are thrown into fighting the Apaches as they are forced from their lands onto reservations. Both of them see the Native American's condition exactly like what slaves endured on southern plantations. Isaac settles differences with the Texas Apaches and marries doctor-trained Alejandra. This panoramic story covers the hateful discrimination against blacks and Native Americans during and immediately after the Civil War.
"First Dark" is a powerful story of the underbelly of American history that has been carefully researched and then written. It covers the horrors of bigotry from the points of view of several different characters and brings everything together at the end of the story. Characters are well-developed and believable, and the dialogue and description throughout the book is brilliant, bringing the reader right into the story. The author's creation of characters who blend well with actual historic figures from that era is spectacular, to say the least. This is one of those books the reader will never forget.
