LTC (Ret) Wally Johnson
LTC (Ret) Wally Johnson is currently Director, Mentor-Protg Program (MPP), and Deputy Director, Procurement Technical Assistance Program Mason Enterprise Center for Regional Analysis and Entrepreneurship, George Mason University located in Fairfax, Virginia. As director of MPP, his office provides third party developmental assistance to major prime contractors in support of the Department of Defense Pilot Mentor-Protg Program.
He was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma (OU), and was commissioned through the OU Reserve Officers Training Corps program in 1961. Additionally, Mr. Johnson was only the second African-American to ever receive a football scholarship at OU, enjoying a successful football tenure and achieving the highest GPA of any student athlete his sophomore year. Mr. Johnson earned a masters degree in business administration (MBA) from Alabama A&M University, and is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (USACGSC), an accredited graduate level institution.
During his twenty-three (23) years of active military duty, he served in numerous leadership and staff assignments in the United States and Overseas (Germany, Vietnam and Korea). Mr. Johnson has held positions of significant responsibility and authority in infantry, special operations, and ordnance specializing in missile and munitions materiel management on staff at a major command headquarters level. He retired at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Since his retirement in 1985, Mr. Johnson has more than 22 years experience with industry in business development manager, program management, senior systems analyst, and strategic planner for a major multi-national corporation, Pentastar Electronics, a Chrysler Company; Automation Research Systems, CAS, Inc. a small business and academia. Mr. Johnson has also served as the lead author and instructor for the Deployment, A Commander Perspective and Advanced Logistics Management courses at U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. Lastly, prior to retirement he was the Chief, Materiel and Logistics Systems Division at the USA Missile and Munitions Center and School.
Awards and decorations earned by Mr. Johnson include the Bronze Star Medal, three awards of the Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, and the Army Achievement Medal. He is a Senior Parachutist and Special Forces Qualified. He has also earned the Combat Infantryman Badge, Presidential Unit Citation, Republic of Vietnam gallantry Cross with Palm and the Vietnamese Jump Wings. Mr. Johnson is married and has four grown children, two boys, two girls, and three granddaughters.