Born and raised in a working-class neighborhood in Stockton, California, in the 1950s and 60s, T.B. spent four years in the US Navy during the Vietnam War aboard the aircraft carriers U.S.S. Oriskany (CVA-34) and USS Ranger (CVA-61) as a Radioman. After his naval service, T.B. married and raised two children. He enjoyed sales and quickly moved through the ranks from mid-management to Executive Vice President. 

In 1999, he joined a sales company as co-owner, where he continued until his retirement in 2016. With free time, he began to research his father's war record and learned that his father was a POW in Germany, captured in late 1944. His research continued until 2023, when he decided to write a fictional account of the details he had learned. Shadows Beneath the Stars was two years in the writing. It is a tribute to the boys who fought and won the war; to those who died, and to those who came home, men transformed.