Meet Mike Marcon
Please allow me to introduce myself.
On and off, I have written and published since 1984, with my first book published by Prentice-Hall that year. I went on to work with various authors helping them to get their books into print. The first of those authors was Jeffery Ethell who wrote Amelia Earhart: The Final Story with Bob Loomis published by Random House in 1984. I helped Ethell refine his manuscript for final acceptance by Random House by writing the narrative and imagery needed to complete the story. Until I came into the project, Random House editors had rejected the manuscript multiple times. They approved my version on the first pass.
That cemented my abilities as a writer, and since that time, I have worked with many authors as either a publishing consultant or ghostwriter as I continued to work on my own projects. I currently have ten books in print. I write about what I know, and what I know best is airplanes, flying and skydiving. See all my books, and read the excerpts here.
I have been a skydiver since 1962 and a Commercial Pilot since 1967. I hail from Virginia.
My latest work
Newly revised in 2025 with updated additional information, articles and photos, The United States Army Parachute Team by Mike Marcon replaces the original version of his book, See You in the Black, The United States Army Parachute Team, The Golden Knights published in 2023.
Now offered in an 8 ½ X 11 in. black-and-white, fully indexed, 397 page hardcover edition, The United States Army Parachute Team is the only definitive book on the market about the U.S.A.P.T offered today. Complete in every detail, the book covers every aspect of the Team’s inception in 1959 as the unofficial "Strategic Army Command (STRAC) Parachute Team" and then as its inclusion as an official U.S. Army unit in 1961 when renamed the “U.S. Army Parachute Team.” Today, the Team, headquartered at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, is known colloquially as “The Golden Knights” and performs hundreds of free-fall parachute demonstrations for millions of spectators every year for both national and international audiences as one of three Department of Defense aerial demonstration teams, the others being the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and the U.S. Navy Blue Angels.
Marcon, a skydiver for over 63 years, writes about the team from a position of authority having been trained as a skydiver by the earliest members of the Golden Knights in 1962. He maintains many friendships today with past and current Golden Knights. He has been published by Random House, Prentice-Hall along with a number of regional and national magazines. He is also a commercial pilot and lives in Virginia.
In the book, he shares with the reader how and why the U.S.A.P.T. was originally formed, what it has accomplished over its 64 year history, and works his way through every aspect of the Team’s daily functions to include how team members are chosen and trained, how its aerial shows are conducted, how the Team’s equipment has evolved, and much, much more. Given the Golden Knights major influence on the sport of skydiving across the years, readers will also learn many heretofore unknown historical facts about the developments in skydiving practices and equipment perfected by the team in use today.
The United States Army Parachute Team is a must have book for Golden Knight aficionados, militaria collectors and skydivers that are seriously interested in the sport’s history.
