Lou Sessinger was born in Atlantic City, NJ, in 1947.

 For the most part, he grew up "Down Beach," as they say at the Shore, in Ventnor.

He had a partial scholarship to LaSalle College in Philly in 1965 where he enjoyed a lot of parties.

He dropped out on academic probation in 1966 and enlisted in the Marines.

He was a non-commissioned officer, a crew chief/gunner of a helicopter gunship in Vietnam

where he was critically wounded while trying to capture an enemy soldier

After a year in hospitals and 8 surgeries, he returned to LaSalle and married a wonderful woman.

He earned a BA, and enrolled at Villanova for an MA.

He worked as a teacher of English and Creative Writing 1974-80 at North Penn HS.

Then he was hired at Calkins Media Inc. As a news reporter and later as a supervising editor and bureau chief.

In time he became a columnist and on occasion took assignments in Israel, Taiwan, Iraq,

Afghanistan, Qatar, Djibouti and elsewhere.

His writing earned him several awards from the PA Keystone Chapter of the Society of

Professional Journalists, the Philadelphia chapter of the SBJ, and the Philadelphia Press Club.

Lou has been a resident of VAD since 2004.

He has two ex-wives, three children and eight grandchildren. He's been retired for 11 years.