Richard B. Frank is a graduate of the University of Missouri and Georgetown University Law Center. He served in the Vietnam War with the 101st Airborne Divisions as an aero rifle platoon leader.

Frank is an independent scholar specializing in the Asia-Pacific War and served as a consultant for the HBO miniseries The Pacific. He joins the program to discuss Tower of Skulls, the first volume of his trilogy covering the entire Asia-Pacific War from 1937-1945.