Commands are called, choices are
made and a 46-year-old mystery is
concluded. All soldiers have stories, but
one High- lands author weaves facts with
fiction to create a vivid military saga.
Author Matthew Eberz recently pub-
lished his first novel, "Tenth Man:' a his-
torical fiction about his experiences and
reflections of military life. He entwined
true accounts of German POW camps
from World War II with heartfelt stories of
Sergeant Jonathan Simon and Major
Sam Call, two military men who
stumbled on the same reservation, 46
years apart.
Eberz was trained in the army at Fort
Bragg, and he was also stationed in Vir-
ginia, California, West Germany and Ft.
Sheridan in Chicago.
He served many different roles including
transportation officer, chief of the 'Yorld
Wide Military Command and Control
Systems Europe, training officer with the
United States Reserves (Ft. Sheridan)
and deputy director of the United States
Army
Artificial Intelligence Center at Fort Mon-
roe, Va.
After Eberz retired, he continued work-
ing with computer systems. He created
the Code Adam alert notifications
system, which supports the National
Center for Missing and Exploited
Children.
While Eberz was stationed at Ft. Sheri-
dan, he encountered a national
cemetery. On the back row, there were
nine graves where German paws were
laid to rest. He took the names to the
Red Cross and found that two of the men
were listed as missing in action in North
Africa.
"Their families even thought their bod-
ies were in Africa and not buried in illi-
nois:' Eberz said. "This mystery intrigued
me as I began to research the labor
camps, and from there, the ideas began
to spring to life:'
The characters in the novel are inspired
by real people and are compilations of
sev- eral people. Even the bad guys are
real. "How I am now is reflected in the
story,
The Tenth Man   
a novel by Matthew Eberz