Today, on the way to work, my wife called to tell me that Tom Clancy passed away.

He was my inspiration.

He wrote the first book I ever voluntarily read without being assigned by a teacher.

That book was “The Hunt for Red October.”

That book, and many of his other works, were nothing short of a revelation for me, and a revolution in the world of military fiction.

Clancy never served in the military or the intelligence community. He had never been to war or worked for the U.S. government. He was simply an insurance salesman from Maryland with a passion for writing and an insane eye for detail.

He kept his political rhetoric to a minimum. He avoided sensationalist machismo.

He grounded his stories in honest research and made his readers feel smarter by the time they finished the last page.

He was my hero; the kind of writer I always wanted to be.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Clancy.