Lieutenant Colonel Fred L. Edwards, Jr., USMC (ret.), is a 30-year Marine with both enlisted and commissioned service.  Lieutenant Colonel Edwards served in infantry, intelligence, and diplomatic assignments afloat and ashore, including two tours in Vietnam. He is a summa cum laude graduate of Park University in Kansas City, an Eagle Scout, and a recipient of the Freedom Foundation's George Washington Honor Medal.

Since retiring from the Marine Corps in 1979, he has formed and operated a real estate investment company, an international public relations company, and a mortgage-marketing firm. Lieutenant Colonel Edwards is a past president of the Suncoast Chapter of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, the St. Petersburg Chapter of MOAA, and the Florida Council of Chapters. Lieutenant Colonel Fred L. Edwards, Jr. is the author of The Bridges of Vietnam: From the Journals of a U. S. Marine Intelligence Officer.

According to the book description of The Bridges of Vietnam: From the Journals of a U. S. Marine Intelligence Officer, “This book is built around Fred Edward's journals, sent home during his first tour in Vietnam in 1966-67. His own meticulous research fits his individual experiences into a larger context, through Postscripts, extensive notes, and a thorough historical Chronology. The book is formatted so that the reader can move easily between the events in Vietnam in 1967-68 and the broader context as revealed through later research. The reader can thus move between Edward's personal experiences in Vietnam and the larger historical forces that sent him there. As a piece of the puzzle of Vietnam, this book holds great significance to those who were there and for students of that war.”