Like his father who gambled on the cards, All-in (don't call him Allan) gambled in life and, true to the name bequeathed to him by his reckless father, jumped at every opportunity to go for broke. Freed from the drudgery of his college experience by a call to duty in the air force during the Vietnam war in 1968, he set to work to make himself a domestic version of the famous war correspondent Ernie Pyle. Mentored by the publisher of the famous newspaper the Territorial Enterprise, where Mark Twain a hundred years previously invented himself, All-in established his journalistic and literary credentials. Along the way, he met a gorgeous blonde, provided refuge for his crazy father, supported his struggling mother, and coached a young soldier to manhood. While awaiting deployment to Southeast Asia, he found purpose and meaning in his life. Like Mark Twain, he joyfully skirted the line between fact and fiction, ultimately deciding no line at all was needed.