Chief Warrant Officer (4) J. E. “Buck” Ballow, USA (ret.) “is a highly experienced criminal investigator and intelligence officer well versed in the history and customs of Korea and Japan from formal education and personal experience. He spent eleven of his fifteen years as a Special Agent of the U.S. Army s Criminal Investigation Command (CID) in Korea and Okinawa. After retirement from the Army, he spent an additional eighteen years as a civilian supervisor in the Intelligence Bureau of the Illinois State Police.” Chief Warrant Officer J. E. Ballow is the author of While the Shishi Cried, Hibiscus Blood and Goodbye, Yobo.

The MOAA said of Hibiscus Blood, “There have been a string of strong-arm robberies in the back streets of Koza, Okinawa, and the latest victim has been killed. The next day, the case is dropped on two special agents, Edward Z. "Easy" Behr and his partner Charlie Bees. The crime scene has been obliterated, there is no evidence, and there are no witnesses. The assignment is simple: start with nothing, put a stop to the robberies, find the murderer, and do it quickly. Join the agents as they walk and talk their way through the case and in the end, force the killer to reveal himself.”

According to the book description of While the Shishi Cried, “Army CID Agents Eddie Easy Behr and Charlie Bees find themselves involved in a strange case of murder, prostitution, and sexual slavery on the back streets of Naminoue, Okinawa.”

According to the book description of Goodbye, Yobo, “A military post in Korea and its adjacent village is rife with assaults, prostitution, black-marketing, larceny, ending in murder. To make matters worse the village may also be haunted.”

One reader said of Goodbye, Yobo “This is a wonderful book full of fun. The author, Buck Ballow was an intelligence officer in Korea and Japan. He knows what he is writing about. His character Easy Behr is a guy that gets a job done and has fun doing it. Read this book and join in the fun.”