People like Sandra Norris, the wife of Colonel John Norris, who I met when I traveled to Iraq last summer.

WHITEHOUSE: Supporting Military Families

For our series of conversations this week about Iraq and the U.S. military, we've reached Lieutenant Colonel John Nagl at Fort Riley, Kansas.

NPR: U.S. Turns More Attention to Training Iraqi Forces

Retired Air Force Colonel John A. Warden III flew 266 combat missions in Vietnam but is best known for masterminding the Gulf war air campaign in 1991.

FORBES: The Art of War

For example, the newly installed commander of the JTFFA detachment in Hanoi, Lieutenant Colonel John Cray, is an infantry officer with no prior experience in Southeast Asia, no intelligence training, no investigative experience, and no command of Vietnamese.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

John Douglas, a former RIR lieutenant colonel, said a lot of people would be working very hard to secure the hostages' release.

BBC: In Amenas road sign

Alexander was a colonel in Grenada where, with loans from brothers John and William (the family was a mini-enterprise in itself), he bought a slave plantation and called it Westerhall.

ECONOMIST: Retracing the steps of one 18th-century Scottish family

John A. Warden III is a retired Air Force colonel.

FORBES: The Art Of War