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Tom Kratman

American science fiction and non-fiction writer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ7816508 ↗
Source-derived summary

Thomas P. Kratman (born September 4, 1956) is an American military science fiction author and retired United States Army officer whose work is published by Baen Books. Kratman's novels include the Desert Called Peace series which has been praised for its action sequences and attention to philosophy of war. He authored three novels with John Ringo in the Legacy of the Aldenata series. Kratman's works often reflect right-wing political perspectives and some have been seen as deliberately crafted to offend left-wing sensibilities. During the Sad Puppies campaign in 2015, Kratman was nominated for a Hugo Award for his novella Big Boys Don't Cry.

Biography

Kratman enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1974, attended Boston College on an Army scholarship and was commissioned as an officer in 1980. He went on to serve both in the invasion of Panama and the Gulf War. Kratman left active service for law school in 1992, graduating in 1995 after which he practiced law for some years. He was called back for service in 2003 and ended his Army career at the United States Army War College as Director, Rule of Law, for the Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute. Kratman retired in 2006 as a lieutenant colonel and became a full-time author.

Editorial summary

“Tom Kratman” enters the record as american science fiction and non-fiction writer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Kratman, American and science can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1956, 2015, 1974, 1980—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1956-09-04. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Kratman, American and science.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Tom Kratman” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Kratman, American and science provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7816508. VIAF identifies the subject as 166260904. The Library of Congress control number is n2003047224. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1956, 2015, 1974 and 1980.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Tom Kratman”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Tom Kratman primary sources, Tom Kratman archive and Kratman research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Tom Kratman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.