Michael K. Bohn

Signing books at the National Press Club Book Fair

Mr. Bohn’s latest book is Heroes & Ballyhoo: How the Golden Age of the 1920s Transformed American Sports. Potomac Books, 2010.

His other books include Money Golf, 600 Years of Bettin’ on Birdies (2007), The Achille Lauro Hijacking, Lessons in the Politics and Prejudice of Terrorism (2004), and Nerve Center, Inside the White House Situation Room (2003).

As a freelancer, Mr. Bohn writes sports features for the McClatchy newspaper chain, which has thirty papers across the country, and the McClatchy-Tribune News Service, a news wire that serves 1,200 newspapers and magazines around the world.  Mr. Bohn also contributes sports reporting and features articles to the Connection Newspapers, a group of nineteen newspapers in Northern Virginia.

Mr. Bohn was featured in Discovery Channel’s 2012 special about the secret facilities and procedures that protect the president and senior government leaders in the event of an attack on Washington. He was a primary contributor and on-screen personality for the 2010 History Channel documentary, “The President’s Book of Secrets.”  He acted as a program consultant for, and appeared in, two BBC Television documentaries about crisis management in the White House, one in November 2002 and the other in April 2003.  Also, Mr. Bohn appeared in a July 2003 special, “The White House at War,” a joint ABC News, New York Times, and Discovery Channel project; and in a 2004 German public TV special, “Palaces of Power.”

With Tricky Dick, 1972

A career naval intelligence officer, 1968 – 1988, Mr. Bohn served the President twice.  During 1970-72, he was a Military Social Aide to President Nixon.  He helped manage White House social events ranging from afternoon coffees to Tricia Nixon’s wedding.

During the second Reagan administration, Mr. Bohn was the Director of the White House Situation Room.  He organized the flow of critical information into the White House and National Security Council throughout the Middle East kidnappings and international terrorism of the mid-1980s.  He wrote daily summaries of world events for the President, Vice President and senior White House officials.

Wife Elin, and sons Carter and Erik, 1988

In Vietnam, Mr. Bohn served in the Brown Water Navy, operating in the rivers of the Mekong Delta.  He was an intelligence duty officer and briefer for the Chief of Naval Operations, and Aide to the Director of Naval Intelligence.  Mr. Bohn also served aboard ships and at intelligence centers in San Diego, Honolulu, and Washington, DC.  In 1984-85, he was a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, a foreign policy research organization in Washington.

After retirement from the Navy in 1988, Mr. Bohn joined Booz Allen & Hamilton and managed multi-million dollar contracts with the federal government for five years.

Mr. Bohn earned a BA and MA in Political Science from Texas Tech, and is an honors graduate of the Naval War College.  He is married with two sons.

Bush 41

With Jim Brady, Reagan Innaguration 1985