Richard Lewis Dixon was born in Virginia in 1944. He attended the Augusta Military Academy, and then went off to Vietnam.

During much of the 60's, Richard served in the US Air Force. He was eventually assigned to a 1st Mobile Comm team in Laos, where he worked with the CIA in a secret unit as a cryptographer

After leaving Laos and subsequently the military service altogether, he worked for Delta Air Lines for 30 years, as well as for the Federal Aviation Administration. He was involved in forming the TSA after 9/11, and became part of an FBI taskforce that helped take two terrorists off the streets.