Wes Choc

After growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Wes Choc joined the US Marine Corps in 1965 during the Vietnam era. His first book, "Just Dust" (published in 2014) recaptures his unusual experiences in this introspective narrative.

Once leaving the marines in '69 and graduating from college in '70, he has lived in a dozen states over 40 years with the American Automobile Association. In '92 he was appointed president of AAA MountainWest, overseeing operations in Montana, Wyoming, and Alaska.

After he retired in 2008, Wes started volunteering extensively, working with troubled youth in group homes, with returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, and with young adults having Asperger's or schizophrenia.

A local neighbor in Tucson read "Just Dust" and asked Wes to "take some notes" on his own World War II journeys. Turned out, this fellow named Wally Rothwell had two quite famous parents ...and came of age in the early 1940s speaking four languages fluently. Though the war was over the same month he was drafted, Wally became a Cold War "intelligence operative" ... a spy of significant consequence in post war Europe. Wes published Wally's biography, titled "Inconspicuous", in 2015.

As a certified TEFL teacher (English as a second language), Wes volunteered for three months teaching English in Ecuador (Quito and Guayaquil) in 2010. He continues to teach English to immigrants and refugees in Arizona when he's not traveling around. In fact, he has had numerous unusual events and incidents while traveling; these have been captured in his third book titled "Hectic Treks" originally published in 2018 with an updated Second Edition just published in 2021.

He also contributes to various anthologies like "Baby Shoes" and "Flash!" which have captured a variety of very short stories and poems among a select group of authors. His story, "Fore or Aft?" was selected to appear in "Finding Light in Unexpected Places" in 2018 (participating in a national writing event). In 2019, a Tucson writers' group published their first anthology called "Monsoon Madness", and a second one "Desert Muses" in 2020, within which Wes has several of his works.

He and his wife, Carol, now live in Tucson, Arizona.