I was born in Redwood City, California in 1955, was raised in Sunnyvale, and attended Homestead High School in Cupertino. My first year in college was at U.C. Davis, but I left to travel in Europe for a year, then completed my B.A. in Near Eastern Studies at U.C. Berkeley. I then spent a year studying Assyriology at the Georg-August Universitaet in Goettingen, Germany under a Fulbright scholarship. After my studies in Germany, I moved to New York City.
In New York I also enlisted in the New York Army National Guard, in which I served six years, mainly with the 69th Infantry Regiment. I earned my commission as a second lieutenant from the Empire State Military Academy.
After a few years hiatus from the academy, working in publishing and advertising, I enrolled in Columbia University's History program, where I earned my Ph.D. in Ancient History. My dissertation "Logistics of the Roman Army in the Jewish War, 66 to 73 A.D." was supervised by Prof. William V. Harris and deposited in 1991. An expanded version of my thesis was published in 1999 as The Roman Army at War, Leiden: E.J. Brill.
I taught as a visiting professor at Tulane University in New Orleans for one year, then spent three years as a Dorot Teaching Fellow at New York University, before coming to San José State, in 1994 as an Assistant Professor. I was promoted to Associate Professor in 1999 and Full Professor in 2005. From 2005 to 2008, I served as Chair of the History Department. Since 1999, I have been the Director of the department's Burdick Military History Project.