Z.D. Dean, a Kinsman native, was accepted into the United State Military Academy at West Point in 2006. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering upon graduating in 2010 and then was deployed to the Middle East in 2011 and 2012.

EDITOR’S NOTE: To suggest a veteran for this series, which runs weekly through Veterans Day, email Metro Editor Marly Reichert at mreichert@tribtoday.com.

KINSMAN — Z.D. Dean, 35, always knew he wanted to serve his country.

“I’ve been interested in the military for years,” he said. “Probably as far back as 7 or 8 years old.”

Dean said he initially planned on enlisting in the military, but that plan was met with some resistance from his father. This forced Dean to consider other paths to service.

“My father, being a veteran himself, was very against me enlisting,” Dean said. “So we started talking about college options, and I decided if I was going to go that route, I was going to go the hard way. I applied to the Military Academy, and I ended up making it.”

In 2006, at the age of 18, Dean was accepted into the United State Military Academy at West Point, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering upon graduating in 2010.

After graduating from the military academy, Dean went to Fort Sill, Okla., for a field artillery basic officer leaders course. He then went to Fort Bliss, Texas, with the First Armored Division, with whom he was eventually deployed as an artillery officer to Iraq in 2011 to 2012, and then Afghanistan from 2012 to 2013.

“I was an artillery officer,” Dean said. “And I went to Iraq with 711 armor. They actually didn’t need artillery at the time, so they gave me an infantry platoon. We did route security in Iraq. I got back stateside and my battery commander told me there was no way I was going to the Afghanistan mission. A couple weeks after I got all my stuff moved back there, he pulled me aside, and I went over to Afghanistan with a training team as a joint fires observer, so I was there to help with air support to protect the team. I also worked with an Afghan colonel to establish artillery training protocol and artillery maintenance protocol.”

Dean said the main memories that he has from his time in the Army were of the bonds he created with other soldiers.

“It’s pretty cliche,” he said. “But the camaraderie, and just the good times I had with my fellow officers and soldiers is probably one of the best memories, if not the best.”

While serving in the military, Dean said he spent much of his off-time reading books.

“I was a prolific reader when I was in the Army,” he said.

Dean said he considers himself a book-a-day reader, and since leaving the military in 2014, has become an author himself. Dean has had three titles published in his science-fiction series called “Redleg In Space.” He said after leaving the Army, he looked for ways to challenge himself personally. Writing became one of Dean’s personal challenges.

“I wanted to see if I could sit down and have the discipline to get through one whole book,” he said.

Dean said many aspects of his book are connected to his time in the military. Although much of the series takes place in outerspace, there were aspects inspired by real experiences in the Army.

“The one thing that I probably do bring to my stories that I can say I bring directly from the military is fairly realistic combat action,” Dean said. “Because with my experience on two deployments with the artillery, I have that firsthand experience.”

Dean also said he has taken issue with how characters are portrayed in other sci-fi military books. As someone who spent time in the Army and made many deep connections, he hopes that his writing is able to truly depict military personnel.

“The one thing that I kind of got frustrated with when reading sci-fi was just how unnaturally heroic a lot of the main characters are,” he said. “They didn’t feel like real people. For a lot of my characters, the inspiration behind them were people I served with.”

Dean and his family are moving to the village of Windham in Portage County. He said that he plans to devote himself to his writing, with his fourth book, the first of a new series, “E.S. Laser Horse Genesis,” which is being edited with a tentative release date planned in September.