{"id":31340,"date":"2025-07-23T14:01:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T14:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/31340\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T14:01:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T14:01:10","slug":"the-kaboom-boys-prolific-alabama-author-tells-story-of-wwii-bomb-squads-in-new-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/31340\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Kaboom Boys:\u2019 Prolific Alabama author tells story of WWII bomb squads in new book"},"content":{"rendered":"

By the end of 2025, Don Keith<\/a> will see the publication of his 45th book. The prolific writer, born Dec. 12, 1947, in Springville, Ala., writes both fiction and nonfiction and is best known for his book series \u201cHunter Killer,\u201d co-authored with author George Wallace.<\/p>\n

How has he managed to write so many books? \u201cI haven\u2019t slept since 1995,\u201d Keith joked in a recent interview with AL.com. His books include biographies, military history books and young adult novels.<\/p>\n

Keith currently lives in Indian Springs Village, Ala., with his wife, Charlene, who was his girlfriend from when they both attended Springville High School.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t know Ketih from his books, you may remember him as a radio personality at stations in Alabama.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a 25-year career in broadcasting before turning to other pursuits,\u201d he said. He worked in Nashville, where he was named Billboard Magazine Radio Personality of the Year, as well as at K99 FM in Birmingham. He was also co-owner of 92-Zew in Mobile.<\/p>\n

Then he turned his attention to writing and has produced several bestsellers. Keith has a new book being released in September from Severn River Press called \u201cThe Kaboom Boys,\u201d co-authored with Elaine Hume Peake. Pre-order the book here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Keith said the book, a fictional account based on actual events and real people, has been described as \u201cBand of Brothers\u201d meets \u201cThe Hurt Locker.\u201d The book is currently being shopped around to industry professionals for a potential film adaptation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all love the story and see the cinematic possibilities, and early reviews for the book have been spectacular,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The author is no stranger to the film industry. One of his books was made into the 2018 film \u201cHunter Killer,\u201d<\/a> starring Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman and Common.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the film, \u2018Hunter Killer\u2019 is my best-selling book, and each of the titles in The Hunter Killer series of thrillers have sold \u2013 and continue to sell \u2013 very well,\u201d Keith said.<\/p>\n

\"Hunter“Hunter Killer,” by Springville, Ala., native Don Keith, was made into a 2108 film of the same name.Severn River Press<\/p>\n

Keith has another film credit for a documentary called \u201cColors of Character,\u201d<\/a> about Birmingham native Steve Skipper, who was a teenaged member of a street gang before turning his life around. Skipper became an artist whose paintings hang in places like the Bear Bryant Museum, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the U.S. Capitol and Buckingham Palace, Keith said.<\/p>\n

The Kaboom Boys<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Kaboom Boys\u201d tells the story of bomb demolition crews during World War II. <\/p>\n

Keith said his co-author Elaine Peake knew the story well. \u201cElaine\u2019s father was one of the first U.S. Army bomb demolition captains in World War II and went into Normandy two days after D-day,\u201d Keith said. \u201cHe enlisted in such a dangerous program \u2013 average life expectancy of \u2018BD boys\u2019 at the time was 10 weeks \u2013 because he wanted to escape a mundane existence in a dreary Pennsylvania coalmining town and go find an adventurous, exciting, meaningful life, all while seeing the world. And, by the way, to help win the war by saving lives rather than taking them. He did that by dealing with lethal unexploded bombs, booby traps, ammunition dumps, land mines and the like while trying to keep up with General Patton\u2019s Third Army.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Blacksmith“The Blacksmith of Dachau,” written by Springville, Ala., native Don Keith, is the second of four books planned in his Call to War series.Severn River Press<\/p>\n

The publisher Severn River Press has already announced a sequel to \u201cKaboom Boys,\u201d called \u201cThe Blacksmith of Dachau,\u201d due out in March of 2026 \u2013 Keith\u2019s 46th book. There will be two more books in this series, called \u201cA Call to War.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt, too, is based on actual events and carries over most of the same characters from \u2018The Kaboom Boys,\u2019 plus introduces a Polish Jew prisoner at Dachau concentration camp \u2013 a character based on a real person \u2013 a former blacksmith who is forced by the SS to defuse unexploded Allied bombs with no training whatsoever.\u201d In real life, the man defused 246 bombs.<\/p>\n

Other projects<\/p>\n

Keith has another book, in addition to \u201cThe Kaboom Boys,\u201d being released this year. \u201cArgentina Station\u201d will be released in November. \u201cArgentina Station,\u201d co-authored with George Wallace, is about four young men \u201cstationed in the cold, unforgiving waters of the North Atlantic at the secret Argentia base in Newfoundland, Canada \u2026 tasked with a pre-war mission few will ever know: supporting Britain\u2019s struggle against the German U-boats.\u201d It can be pre-ordered here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Keith has used his Alabama upbringing to create settings for many of his books. One of his young adult books in the Rolling Thunder Stock Car Racing series (co-authored with Kent Wright) is set at the Talladega Superspeedway.<\/p>\n

Among his biographies is a title many will recognize: \u201cBear: The Legendary Life of Coach Paul \u2018Bear\u2019 Bryant\u201d, released in 2006. He also wrote the story the USS Drum, a submarine exhibited next to the USS Alabama in Mobile, in his book \u201cFinal Patrol.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keith is also keeping an eye on the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am also actively pitching a screenplay I wrote based on the true story of a Talladega man, Earl Smith, who, while serving as a bomb tech in the US Air Force in the early 1960s, was called upon to make safe an armed atomic bomb that was lost when a bomber crashed in North Carolina,\u201d Keith said. \u201cOne slip and much of the East Coast of the US would have disappeared. Amazing story! It\u2019s titled \u2018The Man Who Stopped Thunder.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By the end of 2025, Don Keith will see the publication of his 45th book. The prolific writer,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[223,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-31340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}