JD Lock

John Lock is a graduate and former Assistant Professor of the United States Military Academy, West Point, who retired from active duty as a Lieutenant Colonel in May 2002 after two plus decades of experience developing, training and mentoring Teams at all levels (squad – theater) as a combat arms officer during the Cold War, and internationally as the acting joint multinational chief NATO/SFOR engineer in the Balkans Theater of Operations, Bosnia i Herzegovina (BiH), during the Kosovo Campaign.  As the Chief Joint Engineer (CJENG), Lock managed all theatre level transportation infrastructure and demining operations, as well as coordinated with and briefed at the international level ministries, donor agencies, Supreme Headquarters Allied Forces Europe (SHAFE), NATO and United Nations (UN) committees.  Later, Lock supported recovery efforts in response to the September 9, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, New York City, by leading the first FEMA damage assessment team into the World Trade Center ‘Ground Zero.’

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Lock enlisted in the Army as a private (PV1) towards the end of the Vietnam era and served the final two years of a four-year enlistment as a sergeant.  Commissioned Engineer in 1982 after graduating from West Point, Lock’s initial assignments included the 1st Armored Division, West Germany, and the 82nd Airborne Division.  Though a Combat Engineer, Lock earned a reputation at division level of serving during major training exercises the engineer’s doctrinal secondary mission – that of Infantry.  In 1989, Lock’s Sapper Company was selected for the FORSCOM Itschner Award (presented to the most outstanding U.S. Army engineering company during a year) and was runner up at Department of Army level.

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As a U.S. Army Corps of Engineer (USACE) NY district deputy commander, Lock supervised a $350M ($700M+ equivalent 2025) construction and services program that spanned 20+ U.S. Army and Air Force installations and programs over eight states and Greenland.  Later, embedded in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), he co-led a sixteen-person team of subject matter experts (SME) and translators in support of a U.S. Department of State survey and analyses of the Ministry of Interior Diplomatic Security Special Forces (DSSF).

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As a trainer – teacher, Lock was an assistant professor and course director of Stochastic Modeling & Simulation in the Department of Systems Engineering at West Point, creating and overseeing an Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) academic curriculum that annually trained 450+ cadets, future Army leaders of all Branches, to analytically approach and solve large-scale, complex problems.  As the senior director of a large-scale, high intensity war games simulations exercise (SIMEX) group (SEG), Lock planned, coordinated and executed Battalion to Theater level combined arms live-virtual-construct (LVC) Battle Command Staff Training exercises for 250 U.S. Army National Guard/Reserve units in a 14-state region.  Later, he served as a SME team member on engineering and combined arms task forces from Battalion to Theater level in support of the U.S. Army’s General Officer Senior Mentor and Warfighting First Army Program led by an infantry Lieutenant General, U.S. Army (Retired), as well as served as a SME in support of the Army Science Board.  

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Lock has a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from West Point and an MS in Operational Research and Statistics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy NY.  He is an honor graduate from a number of Army schools to include the Engineer Officer Basic Course, the Infantry Officer Advanced Course (as an Engineer, placed #2 in the class) and the Command and General Staff College (CGSC).  Lock is also a graduate of the following courses – Ranger, Airborne, Jumpmaster, USACE District Commander’s Course, Combined Arms & Services Staff School (CAS3), Air Movement Officer, Nuclear Biological & Chemical (NBC) and Battalion Adjutant’s Course.  His decorations and awards include the Ranger Tab, Master Parachutist Wings, the Legion of Merit and the National Infantry Association (NIA) Order of Saint Maurice.

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Post retirement from active duty, Lock formed Bayonet Forward, LLC, and primarily worked as a consultant or program manager in support of Command & Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) architecture development and network analyses support of the Warfighter by providing products for the following major programs: OV-3 IERs for PM Warrior Information Network – Tactical (WIN-T) RFP Milestone C; SV-6 traffic profiles for MITRE Command Post of the Future (CPOF) evaluation; OV-6s required by Congress for PM MRAP acquisition; SV-6 Traffic & Bandwidth Profiles in support of Joint Node Network (JNN) evaluation and training pre-Operation Iraqi Freedom deployment for the 3rd Infantry and 101st Airborne Divisions.  Lock also served as the lead PM for the full cycle acquisition process of a joint $200M+ U.S. Army – USMC WIN-T Tropospheric (TROPO) Scattering communications program, facilitating collaboration among cross functional teams and joint military services while planning, coordinating and drafting on behalf of the U.S. government, and in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), the Request for Proposal (RFP) packet posted for commercial solicitation.

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In addition to working with testbed experiments and network integration evaluations, Lock wrote on behalf of the Infantry School (TIS), Fort Benning, GA, the first set of seven Unmanned Aerial Vehicle/Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UAV/SUGV) mission planning and Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTP) doctrinal documents published by the Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC).  Most recently, Lock supported the Army Futures Command (AFC) Artificial Intelligence Integration Center (AI2C) for nearly four years as a SME on AI applications and responsible use.

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In 2007, Lock formed ALVA Labs, LLC, a research group that was awarded a U.S. Patent for Stimulated emission and enhanced detection (SEED) of chemicals and chemical compounds.  With the use of advanced Tera-hertz (THz) technology, SEED has the potential to safely detect and identify from a stand-off distance, compositions at the molecular level, to include explosives or viruses.

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On 21 May 2021, Lock’s 18-year odyssey in pursuit of a Medal of Honor upgrade for his friend and mentor, COL (Ret) Ralph Puckett, Jr., was achieved when President Joe Biden presented the award to the then 94-year-old warrior in a White House ceremony.  Later, after The Ranger’s passing at the age of 97, Lock was able to secure a joint Congressional resolution to have the colonel Lie in Honor in the Capitol Rotunda as the last living MoH recipient of the Korean Conflict.  As such, he was only the 42nd person in history to Lie in Honor/State.

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Lock is the author of four published books endorsed by the likes of General (Ret) Colin Powell, Medal of Honor recipients Colonel (Ret) Ralph Puckett and former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey, former U.S. Senator Bob Dole, historian Stephen Ambrose and best-selling authors Lieutenant General (Ret) Hall Moore and W.E.B. Griffin.  In addition, Lock has written a screenplay that placed as a finalist in two major competitions.  He has also been ‘The Talent’ (yes, that’s meant to be a joke – but that’s what it said on the checks) on both a Spike TV and SyFy Channel program.

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Lock is married to his high school sweetheart, Judy (though she did not know it at the time), and is blessed with three amazing daughters, Jen, Cheryl and Stephanie, three sons in law and an Infantry squad of nine lively grandchildren.

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RLTW!