Robert Young Pelton - Bio

Bio

Pelton was born July 25, 1955, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. At age ten, he became the seventh youngest student ever to attend Saint John's Cathedral Boys' School a school in Selkirk, Manitoba. Pelton claims to have been a lumberjack, boundary cutter, tunneler, driller and blaster's assistant before getting his first job as a copywriter when he was 17 in Toronto, working for the ad agency BBDO, having originally been working in the mailroom. He moved to the United States where he worked for various multimedia companies that did product launches like working directly with Steve Jobs with the Lisa launch and Macintosh launch. In his mid thirties he retired from the business world and focused his time on understanding conflict. Pelton quickly made a name for himself traveling and reporting from the dirty wars, rebel camps and war zones. He got his break as a writer while reporting on the Camel Trophy, an annual event in which teams from around the world competed by overcoming some of the world's most hostile natural environments in Land Rovers. He was with the U.S. team and published his account in Soldier of Fortune.

He licensed databased travel content to companies like Microsoft and IBM, selling his businesses to turn full time to conflict coverage in the mid 90's. He began with a two book deal from Random House, a television series from Discovery and a major web event with ABC News.

While in Uganda he missed a bomb assassination attempt against him by the ADF, an Islamic group, by 10 minutes at the Kampala Speke Hotel. In January 2003, Pelton was assigned by Discovery and National Geographic to do a television special and article on the Darien Gap. Pelton and two 22 year old travelers were ambushed, killing one Kuna Indian and injuring one other. The group was then kidnapped and marched at gunpoint through the Darien Gap by the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) and across the 90 mile jungle trail over the 10 days before being released.

When AUC leader Carlos Castano finally learned of the identity of the hostages, he ordered Pelton and his companions released and issued a press release to Reuters stating that they were being held for their safety. Castaño had remembered Pelton's name from a meeting they'd arranged years before, and put in the order for the hostage's release.

Pelton contributed to National Geographic Adventure as both a Contributing Editor and a long running Columnist from January 2001 to 2007. In December 2007 he released his article on Blackwater Worldwide. He was involved in negotiations with the President of Equatorial Guinea regarding the early release of coup plotters, Nick du Toit who had worked for Executive Outcomes in the mid-1990s. The story behind the coup and his efforts to free Nick du Toit and Simon Mann are documented in the May 2008 Men's Journal "How to Stage a Coup".

In December 2008, Pelton travelled the Horn of Africa with pirates and with an anti-piracy crew researching the piracy and anti-piracy industry. In January 2009, Pelton resumed immersion style coverage by going inside the Army's controversial Human Terrain System.

According to 2009 radio, TV interviews and newspaper articles, Pelton spent a year in an advisory position to the commander of ISAF and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A) in Afghanistan.