After graduating high school in Clovis, New Mexico, John Young joined the U.S. Army Security Agency in 1968 and served one tour in Vietnam.

Following his discharge in 1972, he attended the University of Arizona, where he majored in journalism and worked as a reporter for the Arizona Daily Star, during and after college.

In the 1980s, he was a writer for the U.S. Information Agency and a reporter for the Voice of America in Washington, D.C.  Later, he became a police officer and private investigator in New Mexico.  After the 9/11 attacks, he joined the FBI as a counter-terrorism analyst and worked at the National Counter Terrorism Center.

 He subsequently moved over to the Defense Intelligence Agency and was trained in operations as a human intelligence collector. He served two tours in Iraq with the Joint Special Operations Command, working missions targeting Al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.

 After Iraq, John was an instructor for U.S. Army Intelligence at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona until he retired. His first novel, Indian Country, won an award in the Arizona Literary contest and was subsequently published by Ingram & Elliott. John has published two other novels about terrorism and crime: The Nexus and Princess of Poland.