An Interview with Frank Demith

Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Frank Demith joined the Army right after graduating from high school and spent twenty-eight years serving on active duty. A 1983 graduate of the United States Military Academy, Demith received a Bachelor of Science with a concentration in Russian Area Studies. He currently lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia.

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

Writing a book has always been something I wanted to do. It has been on my bucket list for years. I enjoy reading thrillers and historical fiction. My favorite authors are Tom Clancy, Harold Coyle, and Vince Flynn

What inspired you to start writing this book?

I wrote two books before this one, but they were factual accounts and I wasn’t able to get them published. I always hoped that more would be written about the immigrant contributions in fighting the War on Terrorism, but there just wasn’t much being done. I helped design and develop the Army Interpreter/Translator program so I decided to write a book based on the program and dedicated it to the more than 1,500 people who joined the Army under my program.

Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

Of Vital Interest is taken from the name of another program, which recruited individuals for their skills in language and culture. The other program’s name was Military Accessions Vital to National Interest. The MAVNI program is also the program that the other four linguists in my book were recruited through to join the Army.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

“Courtesy of The Red White and Blue,” “American Soldier,” “Take A Look At Me Now,” “Cherry Bomb,” and “Ballad of the Green Berets.”

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

Most of my life has been spent in the Army. I also worked as a contractor for several years in support of many different Army programs. What most people don’t know is that I own two chairs from Tom Clancy’s vacation home which I oftentimes sit in while I am writing.

What books did you read (for research or comfort) throughout your writing process?

David Goggins’s You Can’t Hurt Me and Harold Coyle’s Look Away.

What is one thing you hope readers take away from reading your book? How do you envision your perfect reader?

I would like readers to be able to understand some of the things that members of the Armed Forces go through when they are deployed overseas. My perfect reader would be someone with little interest in the genre who reads my book and gets hooked.

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