Marty Richard

The pilot who lived it

Marty “Opus” Richard spent 25 years in the cockpit — a combat veteran with 38 combat missions who flew F-15s on active duty with the 53rd Fighter Squadron before joining the 101st Fighter Squadron of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. On the morning of September 11, 2001, he was scrambled into the skies over the Northeast, and carried home something he would not set down for years.

Today he is a captain and line check pilot for a major airline. Writing has become a calling all its own: faith-based, character-driven dramas, stories of courage, family, and redemption that trace the long shadow of PTSD, and the way mercy and grace break through even our darkest moments. For Marty, that breakthrough came while sitting in Adoration.

In 2022, after a “nudge” from his wife, he applied to the Writers Guild Foundation's prestigious Veterans Writing Project - and graduated having written Nickel on the Grass under the mentorship of Chris Roessner (Sand Castle), Adair Cole (Sheriff Country), and Nick Hawthorne (Next).