Dr. Kate Dahlstrand served as a combat medic in the United States Army until 2008. She then began a college career using her GI Bill benefits where she discovered a love of social history. Her dissertation focused on a series of community studies that explored how people's understanding of loyalty directly informed their motives and actions during the Secession, Civil War, and Reconstruction era in nineteenth century America. She currently works as a historian for Army University Press in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas where she runs the Research and Books team as managing editor.