Colonel Arthur "Art" Alphin is a retired American Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 officer and military historian.

He is the founder and owner of A-Square

A-Square

A-SQUARE COMPANY, LLC is a manufacturer of rifles, ammunition and bullets based in Chamberlain, South Dakota in the United States. The company is one of 19 that are members of the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturer's Institution. The company's focus is on its firearms for hunting large...

, manufacturer of American hunting rifles. He taught military history at West Point. Since retiring he has co-authored several books with his wife and children's author Elaine Marie Alphin.

He also assisted ghostwriter Lisa Harkrader in writing Animorphs

Animorphs

Animorphs is an English language science fiction series of young adult books written by K. A. Applegate and published by Scholastic. Five humans, Jake, Marco, Cassie, Rachel, and Tobias, and one alien, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill , obtain the ability to morph into any animal they touch. They name...

 #51: The Absolute

The Absolute (Animorphs)

The Absolute, published in 2001, is the fifty-first book in the Animorphs series, written by K. A. Applegate. It is narrated by Marco.-Plot summary:...

, by providing her with information about tanks and reading over the book to check for errors.