Lawrence J. Hickey was born April 15, 1944, in Wichita, Kansas. At an early age, he became fascinated with aviation because his father, Joseph, was a Project Engineer for the military division of the Boeing Company. In 1966, Larry graduated from Rockhurst College in Kansas City with a degree in History. He then spent the next year living in Saigon in the household of a top-ranking member of the Vietnamese royal family while studying the native culture and language and working as a researcher and writer for the Department of the Air Force’s Project CHECO, a branch of the Operations Analysis Directorate of HQ, Seventh Air Force. During this period, he traveled throughout Vietnam interviewing combat personnel and frequently flew as an observer on reconnaissance missions with Forward Air Controllers. Based on these combat experiences,  he authored acclaimed studies on air operations in Southeast Asia.

After returning to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. He soon accepted a job with the Defense Intelligence Agency where he became the first analyst for the newly formed South Vietnam political desk. During the next four years, Larry worked in the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) staffed National Military Intelligence Center in the Pentagon, and he served in the Vietnam Order of Battle Section, the Southeast Asia Situation Room, and then as a Political Analyst for North Vietnam. His responsibilities included writing articles for the daily DIA Intelligence Summary and preparing parallel items for the daily intelligence briefing for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1969, he researched, prepared, and personally delivered a major briefing on Vietnamese morale to the Chairman and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

During most of his career with DIA, he also served with the inter-agency task force known as the Vietnam Special Studies Group, which, under Dr. Henry Kissinger, produced studies on U.S. war policy in support of the Paris peace talks to end the Vietnam War. In this capacity, and at the personal direction of the President, he returned to Vietnam in 1970 for six weeks to conduct field research in the Mekong Delta for a major cease-fire planning study. In January of 1972, Larry was credited with providing the first warning within the Washington intelligence community of the forthcoming, all-out North Vietnamese spring offensive, and thereafter took the lead of reporting on it. As a result of his reputation as one of the top experts within the intelligence community on the Vietnam War, he was invited to serve as a consultant to the National Security Council Staff at White House meetings on enemy plans and operations.

At the end of 1972, after a highly successful intelligence career, he left government service to become a private businessman and entrepreneur, pursuing interests in manufacturing, and real estate development in Boulder, Colorado with his wife Sue. Larry died on August 14, 2021.

Hickey founded International Historical Research Associates (IHRA) and an author for each volume of the Eagles Over The Pacific series.