Don Bendell

Don Bendell is a successful author and owns and operates a martial arts school in southern Colorado, but many of his activities in his life equipped him to be a tracker. That talent has been used on many occasions to locate lost hikers, missing animals, and fugitives. Very active in Boy Scouting and bow hunting in his early life, Don was a US Army Special Forces (Green Beret) officer, a licensed Colorado big game guide and outfitter, and did countless hours of research for his ten westerns about a famous cowboy tracker, Chris Colt. He is the author of 26 books with over 3,000,000 books in print worldwide, a 1995 inductee into the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame, a disabled Vietnam veteran and former Green Beret officer, and is a real cowboy with a real horse and real ranch in southern Colorado.

About the Author

Books

Awards & Honors

Don (1995) & Wife Shirley (2009) were the first and only couple in history to both be inductees into the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame.

June 2011, Don was honored by the ReadWest Foundation for "Excellence in Western Literature) 1st Annual Award

Since 2006-2012, Gubernatorial Appointee Colorado State Governor's Council for Physical Fitness

June 1, 1967; Graduated and commissioned Second Lieutenant, Infantry Officers Candidate School (OCS), 56th Company, Class 32-67, Fort Benning, GA

1968-1969 Disabled Vietnam Veteran, Executive Officer-Civil Affairs/Psychological Operations Officer of Operational Detachment-A-242 (Dak Pek), Company B, 5th Special Forces Group Airborne.

1968-1969 District Coordinator Dak Pek and Dak Sut Districts, Kontum Province, Republic of South Vietnam, Top Secret Phoenix Program.

1969, Captain Don Bendell, US Army Special Forces graduated on the Commandants List at the US Army Staff Intelligence Officers School, Fort Holabird, MD

December, 2001-December, 2003 – President of Chapter 4/24 (Rocky Mountain Chapter) Special Forces Association

2004 was made Honorary Oklahoman by Oklahoma House of Representatives and then-Lt. Governor (now Governor) Mary Fallin.

April 23, 2005 at US Air Force Academy Chapel was “Knighted” by the Grand Priory of the United States, Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem

1996, San Diego, CA Inducted into the Martial Arts Museum of America

1966, Columbus, Ohio won Ohio State Championship

Extemporaneous Speech Competition, Vocational Industrial Clubs of America