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- My hometown:
- Originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I attended Penn State University, captained the Rifle Team and graduated with a degree on Business Logistics. Immediately upon graduation he entered the U.S. Army and was initially trained at Ft Bragg, North Carolina. While in the army I rose to the rank of Regular Army Major in the United States Army and served numerous assignments including Ft. Sheridan, Illinois. I served as a Platoon Leader, Unit Commander, Battalion Operations Officer, Division Transportation Officer, Chief World Wide Military Command & Control Systems Europe, Training Officer with the United States Reserves at Ft. Sheridan, and Deputy Director of the United States Army Artificial Intelligence Center at Fort Monroe Virginia. Post army service, he continued in the computer industry developing major computer systems for private industry. While in corporate America I had the honor of creating the ADAM alert notification system, which supports the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). My wife Rebecca and I are now full-time residents of Highlands
- My books:
- Summary of the Novel TENTH MAN by Matthew Eberz
This is a story about two men, one in the present and one in the past. The present day soldier, Major Sam Call, is at the end of his once promising career and who was a career minded soldier of honor and integrity that when face with a situation of criminal conduct by a senior officer he could not walk away. By openly fighting the system he ended his career. Now his last assignment is a task far beneath is rank and position, closing out Fort Sheridan. This installation had been placed on the list of base closings and Call is tasked to supervise the preparation of military buildings on the post by removing old furniture, and other contents of the buildings, cleaning them then sealing them for the turn over to civilian authorities. Sam is an intense man and soldier who loves his wife and kids and his army with equal intensity. He is fun loving and in love with Mary, his wife of twenty years, and who together they have four daughters all of which Sam adores. His best friends are Dana and Vickie Jackson. Dana is just about everything that Sam is not. Where Sam is the tall, picture of a solider, Dana is small, meek, and introverted. While Sam never avoids, and even enjoys an ‘in your face’ confrontation, Dana will walk a mile to avoid one. Yet they are the best of friends and it is a friendship born from conflict together and raised on fifteen years of mutual respect.
Upon arriving on base Sam is intrigued by the graves of nine Germans buried in the post cemetery, and appalled at the ego and self-serving nature of the new Post Commander. The assignment is terrible but it has two saving graces, he works with First Sergeant Kent, an ‘old school’ first sergeant of immense presence and he gets to be near Dana and Vickie who are assigned to a command in Chicago. In the course of clearing the buildings, one of Sam’s soldiers finds a diary belonging to a Sergeant Jonathan Simon, who was finance NCO during WWII. The reading of this diary, and the analysis of some financial records also found during the clearing of the building, sets Sam off to research. Sam learns that there were German POWs were housed at Fort Sheridan from 1944 through 1946 and that the army contracted out thousands of German POWs to local farmers, loggers and other companies from the Ft Sheridan POW system that included over twenty sub camps throughout the mid west.
Through his reading of the diary and his research, Sam soon realizes that millions of dollars may have been stolen using the POW labor. Sam also realizes that Simon knew something was not right too and also set off to investigate. Simon’s diary abruptly stops after he informs him commander of his suspicions. Sam enlists his old friend Dana in what has become a quest for the truth; to find Sergeant Simon and solve the mystery of the lost money.
Sam uncovers a plot that involved the Post Commander, the army doctor, security and administration, and the senior German POWs. In 1944 through 1946, while Ft. Sheridan was the home for thousands of German POWs, it was also the out-processing center for thousands of American soldiers who had done their duty, ended their military obligation and were now returning to civilian life. Each week, a thousand soldiers came to the processing center, were medically examined, administratively cleared and returned to civilian life. But some never left the confines of the base. Judged medically unfit by the post doctor, one selected soldier was kept back for ‘treatment’ while the rest of the group processed out of the army. This unsuspecting soldier had no family, no one to go home to, and more importantly, no one to miss him. Judged medically unfit, the soldier is moved by security while “recovering” from his illness. The unsuspecting American soldier is killed and one of the German POWs apparently dies in an accident. He is also not missed by anyone. The American soldier is buried in the POW’s place and the once medically unfit soldier becomes well and joins the next group processing out of the army. With over a thousand American candidates a week, it does not take long to allow a hand full of POWs to join American society.
Sam searches for the truth and discovers the four key players from plot, all of which are now dead. But the trail leads to one man, Michael Ream, a powerful local Chicago businessman. Sam believes that Ream is actually the chief POW who controlled the POW labor and enabled the American officers to steal millions of dollars. Sam is convinced of Ream’s guilt but knows that after forty plus years the likelihood of proving the man in the grave was not a German POW but actually an unknown American soldier but slim to none. Sam gambles, and using the press to push the issue into the public spotlight, he forces Ream to challenge Sam with a public opening of the disputed grave.
The story emphasizes the bond that only real soldiers develop, ‘Leave no man behind’ is not just a phase but an oath that some live and die by. This is a story pattered around real people, real POWs, and actual events. It is a story of a tenth man; whose has lay hidden along with nine other souls for over forty years. It is the story of a young sergeant who was left on the battlefield of corruption and greed, and of the man who brought him home.
Summary of the Novel VERY PUBLIC DATA by Matthew Eberz
Major Sam Call, now retired from the United States Army, has become full-time partners in an investigation firm with his friend, David Lytle. David was instrumental in helping Sam uncover the identity of a former German POW who had escaped from a World War II POW camp at Fort Sheridan, and in doing so partially solved a war crime that had remained hidden for forty-five years, and also bring home a soldier who had been lost since 1945.
Now in the civilian world, Sam Call, in his new role as investigator, is sent to investigate the financial dealings of a Public Records company. IdentityPoint is a major player in the relatively new world of computerized public records that has grown from a small warehouse of insurance information to the largest provider of public records data in the United States. IdentityPoint provides government, private companies, as well as individuals with reports on individual personal data including: names, aliases, address history, relatives, property ownership, dates of birth, death, marriage, divorce, and social security numbers. If a client wanted to know the ins and out of an individual, IdentityPoint could provide the report that would reveal everything from the person’s birth, to their death, and everything in between.
By acquiring nearly a hundred small data gathering companies over five years, IdentityPoint had become the largest single warehouse of public records in the United States. Believing one of the senior officers has been illegally benefiting from a string of acquisitions, another corporate officer contracted LNMB Investigation, to go undercover to seek out the financial data to prove her suspicions. Along with David’s long-time associate. Bob, a small, unassuming but extremely resourceful man, Sam goes undercover in a mesmerizing world of data and computers.
While seeking data that would determine if there were illegal activities involving acquisitions, Sam quickly discovers the vastness of the public records data systems, the immense power the company, and the data, have over the lives of typical and not so typical citizens. This huge, almost unchecked repository of personal data, properly inquiried can provide the entire life’s history of an individual including their connections with other people, property, and companies. While using the powerful reporting tools, Sam unknowingly comes across individual names that when inquired alert the F.B.I., and Sam once again finds himself the target of those who would wish to silence anything Sam has to say, as well as silencing Sam–permanently.
Set in Georgia, British Virgin Islands, and Washington D.C., Very Public Data, explores the world of Public Records, secret organizations, the world of personal identities, those that build them and those who abuses them.
The story of Very Public Data unveils both the positive and negative power of public data; and while this is a tale of corruption, murder, and deception, it is also a celebration of the love of a man and a woman, the unbreakable bond of soldiers, and the undying strength that honor brings to the human spirit.
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- http://matteberz.com
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I've been very blessed. "Table for Three" has received its first three reviews, and they're all excellent.
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I remember High Wycombe, although I was never stationed there. I was once at RAF Little Rissington, which was at that time The Central Flying School of the RAF, and had some frineds from the old USAF base at Upper Heyford. When the RAF left Little Rissington I beleive it was transferred to the US Army and became a military hosptial for the US forces in England.
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Brian
Thanks for the comment, and an especially big thank youfor voting for it in the awards, much appreciated!
I se you were in the U.S. Army. I served in the Royal Air Force, but my father and grandfather both served for many years in the British Army, one in each World War.
Have a greatd day and thanks again for the vote.
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