Colonel George P. Coan, Jr., retired from the U.S. Army in 1999 after over 30 years of active service. He commanded field artillery units in both Europe and the Pacific and served in Australia as the U.S. Army Attachè during the early 1990s. His high-level staff assignments included service on the Joint and Army Staffs and as the senior active component officer in the National Guard Bureau. He also commanded the Force Management Integration Agency at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. His concluding assignment was Chief, Commemorations, Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of the Army (International Affairs). After retirement from the Army, Colonel Coan served for 16 and a half years as the Director of National Security Studies at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA); he still works with AUSA as a consultant.

A 1969 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, he also holds an MA in Public Administration from the University of Oklahoma and is a graduate of the U.S. Army War College. Colonel Coan and his wife, Pam, live in Manassas, Virginia; they have four children and eight grandchildren.