Robert Flanagan spent thirteen years on active duty as a United States Army Officer. He commanded a Long-Range Reconnaissance Platoon and Headquarters, JCS, Kosovo, where he received the Kosovo Campaign Medal with Bronze Star. He was a Foreign Area Officer and has worked in Ukraine, Serbia, Poland, Germany, Italy, Romania, Belarus and Russia. He left active duty in 2003 as a Major.

During the 2022 Russian invasion, Ukraine offered military veterans places in the International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine. Flanagan applied through the Ukrainian Embassy and was accepted. He spent the spring of 2022 running security for convoys into Ukraine as well as working in the refugee centers in Medyka and Przemysl, Poland

He has a BA in English Literature from St. Lawrence University in New York, an MA from SUNY Potsdam and, best of all, a Cosmetology license from the Shoreline Beauty School in Santa Cruz CA. His fiction has been published on Ducts.com and his short story, "Movie Car" was published in Rosebud Literary Quarterly.

He also has an open warrant in Russia.