John Lock is a graduate and former Assistant Professor of the United States Military Academy at West Point who retired from active duty as a Lieutenant Colonel in May 2002. He enlisted in the Army as a private in 1974 and served as a Non-Commissioned Officer until 1978. His commissioned assignments included the 1st Armored Division, West Germany, the 82d Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C., course director of Stochastic Modeling & Simulation in the Department of Systems Engineering at West Point, Deputy Commander New York District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chief Joint Engineer Stabilization Forces (SFOR), Sarajevo, Bosnia i Herzegovina during the Kosovo Campaign and senior active duty officer of a 78th Division (TS) Simulations Exercise Group.

His military education includes the Engineer Officer Basic Course, the Infantry Officer Advanced Course, the Combined Arms Services Staff School, the Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers District Commander's Course. His decorations and awards include the Ranger Tab, Master Parachutists Wings and the Legion of Merit

Upon retirement, Lock worked for Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) on contract to the U.S. Army's Communications & Engineering Research Command's (CERDEC) Architectural Systems Engineering Office. In support of ASEO, he designed and developed an architectural modeling methodology that seamlessly replicates the Army's Current and Future Force C4SIR operational, system and technical architectures. The model, "The Complete C4ISR Architectural Tool" (TC2AT), was nominated for final consideration for the 2005 CSC Award for Technical Excellence. In 2005, Lock became an independent consultant. Forming Bayonet Forward, LLC, he continues to or has past supported S&TCD ASEO's ongoing architectural development and network analysis efforts, Software Blocking (SWB), the Cross-Command Collaborative Effort (3CE) and CERDEC's On-The-Move C4ISR Testbed Experiment. In March 2006, The Infantry School (TIS), Fort Benning, GA., published its first set of seven Unmanned Aerial Vehicle/Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UAV/SUGV) mission planning and Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTP) doctrinal documents that were written by Lock based on the results of the 2005 Air Assault Expeditionary Force (AAEF) field experiment.

As a major partner in February 2007, Lock formed ALVA Labs, LLC , a research group whose goal is"Inventing What the World Needs" through theoretical and applied scientific research

He is the author of four published books endorsed by the likes of General (Ret) Colin Powell, former U.S. Senator Bob Dole, historian Stephen Ambrose, former U.S. Senator and Medal of Honor recipient Bob Kerrey and best selling author W.E.B. Griffin, as well as a number of published articles and editorials within various journals, to include the Defense Acquisition Review Journal. Lock also has served as a consultant for U.S. Army "Warfighter" exercises, the U.S. First Army's National Guard/Reserve General Officer "Senior Mentor" Program and as a subject matter expert in support of the Army Science Board (ASB). screen.