Gerad Allen Blume is a historian with a BA from the University of South Carolina Aiken and a MA from Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont.  He attended the PhD program at the University of Southern Mississippi for a period before resigning from the program citing personal reasons.   In all of these, his area of study was history, the focuses being military, US, and cultural history.  The bulk of his professional research was in strategic airpower, and in the years since grad school, Gerad has spent a great deal of time uploading his research into an annotated timeline format online.  This timeline can be viewed here.

Blume’s first name is similar in pronunciation to Jarrod, though because it is so often mistaken, initials are commonly used.

Blume is also vice president of the Hangar Thirteen Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit organization based in Asheville, North Carolina, currently rebuilding a Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress from the Second World War.  He is also active with Project Warbird, based in Anderson, South Carolina, restoring a Consolidated LB.30/B-24 Liberator, a heavy bomber which saw use with the UK’s Royal Air Force via Lend-Lease.  Coming from a family of carpenters, his work began with rebuilding and/or repairing the aircrafts’ wooden components, but expanded to overseeing volunteers and coordinating restoration efforts.