W E B Griffin, prolific military novelist, dead at age 89

W E B Griffin, the prolific and best-selling author of military novels, has died at age 89.

Griffin, whose real name was William E. Butterworth III, died Feb. 12. His death was confirmed Monday by his publisher, Putnam, which did not immediately provide additional details.

Himself a military veteran who enlisted in the Army when he was just shy of 17 and later served in the Korean War, he wrote more than 200 books under W E B Griffin and various other names and sold millions of copies.

His many popular series included "Badge of Honor," ''Clandestine Operations" and "Presidential Agent." More than 20 novels, including the upcoming "The Attack," were written with his son, William E Butterworth IV.

Under his own name, he helped write several sequels in the 1970s to the Richard Hooker novel "M(asterisk)A(asterisk)S(asterisk)H," the basis for the hit movie and television show about a U.S. medical unit in Korea.

A Newark, New Jersey native, Griffin started using other names on for his books