John B. Alexander

John B. Alexander (born 1937) is a retired U.S. Army infantry officer and colonel and a leading advocate for the development of non-lethal weapons and of military applications of the paranormal. He has written and lectured on the reality of UFOs. He characterizes his career as having "evolved from hard-core mercenary to thanatologist". Alexander figures prominently in journalist Jon Ronson's book The Men Who Stare At Goats (2004), and its related Channel 4 documentaries, which examine the subject of New Age ideas influencing the U.S. military.

Alexander was born in New York in 1937. He enlisted in the Army as a private in 1956, and retired as a Colonel in 1988. He graduated from the University of Nebraska (BGS, Sociology) in 1971; from Pepperdine University (MA, Education) in 1975; and from Walden University (PhD, Education) in 1980. Commander, Army Special Forces Teams, US Army, Thailand, Vietnam, 1966-69. Chief of human resources division, US Army, Ft. McPherson, GA, 1977-79. Inspector general, Department of Army, Washington, 1980-82. Chief of human technology, Army Intelligence Command, US Army, Arlington, VA 1982-83. Manager of tech. integration, Army Materiel Command, US Army, Alexandria, VA, 1983-85. Director, advanced concepts US Army Lab. Command, Aldelphi, MD 1985-88.

Alexander describes his assignment in 1971 as an infantry officer at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, during which time he went diving in the Bimini Islands in search of the lost continent of Atlantis. During his career in the army he showed exceptional interest in esoteric techniques explored by Lt. Col. Jim Channon in his First Earth Battalion manual. An example is neuro-linguistic programming with which he hoped to create "Jedi warriors" (according to his own account in his 1990 book The Warrior's Edge). He has published another book, UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities (ISBN 978-0-312-64834-3).

Formerly with the U.S. Army Intelligence & Security Command (INSCOM) under Gen. Albert Stubblebine, 1982-4. Reportedly, Alexander was one of Stubblebine's closest officers. Alexander received a National Award for Volunteerism from Pres. Ronald Reagan in 1987, and the Aerospace Laureate Award from Aviation Week in 1993 and '94.

Alexander claims credit as the inventor of the non-lethal, incapacitating weapon "sticky foam" which was used with mixed results by U.S. Marines in Somalia in 1995.

The Albuquerque Journal reported in March 1993 that "last year, Alexander organized a national conference devoted to researching 'reports of ritual abuse, near-death experiences, human contacts with extraterrestrial aliens and other so-called anomalous experiences.' " The Australian magazine Nexus reported that in 1971, Alexander 'was diving in the Bimini Islands looking for the lost continent of Atlantis. He was an official representative for the Silva mind control organization and a lecturer on pre-cataclysmic civilizations ... [and] he helped perform ESP experiments with dolphins.'"

Alexander lives in Las Vegas with his wife, alien abduction researcher Victoria Lacas Alexander, and two children.

• The Warrior's Edge (1990), William Morrow & Co (co-author with Richard Groller and Janet Morris); Discusses meditation, active listening, intuition, visualization, biofeedback, martial arts, and psychokinesis as researched by the U.S. military.
• Future War: Non-Lethal Weapons in Modern Warfare (1999), Thomas Dunne Books; foreword by Tom Clancy.
• Winning the War: Advanced Weapons, Strategies, and Concepts for the Post-9/11 World (2003), Thomas Dunne Books.
• UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities (2011), Thomas Dunne Books, foreword by Jacques F. Vallée, introduction by Burt Rutan.

Alexander is interviewed for the documentary featurette "The Science Behind the Fiction" which appears on the DVD for the 2009 film Push. There he discusses his personal experiences with paranormality within the US military. He claims that the Soviet Typhoon class submarine first became known to American military intelligence by paranormal methods.