WILL LIFE IMITATE ART?

By Trishna Buch
A lot of people are in support of Texas seceding from the nation. One of these people is Marvin Tyson, two-time author, veteran and pipefitter. I had the opportunity to talk to Tyson about himself, his experiences and his two books: The Fall Of The Western Empire
and December’s Soldier’s. Born in Brownwood, Tyson said he grew up in “a poor family situation.” As a result, he went out and got his first
job at 11-years-old—at a Corpus Christi marina. “I fished all the time as a kid, in the summers especially, and one of the people who worked
at the marina in Corpus Christi asked me if I’d like to have a part time job, helping people tie up the boats, so that is how that came about,” he told me. Tyson worked at the marina for a few hours a day after school, 12 hours a day on the weekends, and was able to use the money he made to pay for his school clothes and supplies. After finishing high school, Tyson went to work for a well-known Houston company
known as Williams Brothers Construction. “We were building freeway overpasses primarily along the Gulf Freeway,” he told me. A friend of
his stopped by the job to let him know that he was going to enlist, and Tyson decided that this would be the perfect time to sign up as well. “Being in the army was always in the back of mind,” he told me. “I had several members of my family who served—including my five older brothers—but this just gave me the push to enlist.” Tyson completed his basic training in El Paso, before going to Infantry School in California. And, despite not being able to participate in Airborne School, he was still assigned to an Airborne Unit. He went to the
82nd Airborne Division in Vietnam and had the opportunity to become an Infantry Platoon Leader. He was in Vietnam for 13 months and 21 days, and in the army for two years. After leaving the army, he went to San Jacinto Junior College and also took some classes in Creative Writing and English Literature at College Of The Mainland. At one point in his journey, he worked for a chemical company while he was in
school and an opportunity arose for him to be a part of the Pipefitters Local Union.. He worked in the pipefitting and welding industry for 34 years, starting at Amoco Refinery and then to British Petroleum which, after he left, became Marathon Refinery. And Tyson has also developed pipefitter and welder programs for Alvin Community College, Galveston College and Texas City High School. Tyson would often write down his thoughts on politics and, after showing his writings to his wife and his brother, they both encouraged him to write a book
and send his work to publishers. “Growing up I always wrote short stories and poems,” he said. His first book came out three and a half years ago and the second of which came out this week. In “The Fall of the Western Empire”, the referendum on independence is passed and it causes a lot of tensions and emotions and “the powers that be are afraid that this will rock the cart.” In “December’s Soldiers”, “there is a group of people headed up by the ex-president of the US and financed by the Chinese underworld that is trying to corner the market on
the world’s crude oil supply,” Tyson explained. “The people in Texas catch on to what is happening and the ex-president and his cohorts think the only way that they can survive is by taking out all the witness,” including three veterans. Tyson has received nothing but positive reactions and has been invited to many different locations to speak on the book and the topics surrounding it. “I have also been invited to schools across the country to speak about the constitution as a guest lecturer,” he said. You can find Tyson’s book through Amazon or
Barnes and Noble. His newer book—December’s Soldiers—will be on the shelves next week. You can contact Tyson through his publicist Defiance Press, through Texas Authors or through his Facebook pages: Marvin Tyson and Marvin Tyson – Texas Author.