In both cases, Bauman was among the first American troops in the deployment, in the opening weeks of the Somalia mission, and within the first hour of the Haiti occupation.
Some of the songs, including "Kismaayo", written in Mogadishu and mailed back to Jack Hardy, who then performed it at The Bottom Line, are in the Smithsonian's Folkways Collection of New York's Fast Folk recordings.
Following his honorable discharge in 1995, Bauman spent the next few years writing and playing guitar on the North American folk circuit, both alone and as part of the group Camp Hoboken, which included folksingers Gregg Cagno and Linda Sharar.
Bauman an opening act for Pete Seeger, Jack Hardy, John Gorka, Odetta, Cheryl Wheeler, and Livingston Taylor, playing at Godfrey Daniels, Passim, Eddie's Attic, The Iron Horse, and other venues.
In 2002, Bauman published his first novel, The Ice Beneath You, which centers around the return of a young American soldier from Somalia.
His third novel, In Hoboken, published in 2008, centers on a group of young musicians in the mid-1990s, and the mental health facility where one of them works.