Growing up in Buffalo, N.Y., Lt. Col. John Lakso had Army posters on the walls of his bedroom and a collection of small plastic soldiers, but he never seriously considered a military career until college.

"My father served during the Korean War period as a military police officer," said Lakso, who is the new director of the U.S. Army Operational Test Command's Maneuver Support and Sustainment Test Directorate, "and I was always the organizer of 'playing Army' in our neighborhood.

"But it was attending college on an ROTC scholarship that helped make up my mind that I wanted an Army career," he said. "I love the Army because of the people."

His family moved to Florida during Lakso's high school years. After graduation, he majored in criminal justice at the University of South Florida, thinking he would get commissioned as a military police officer.

"But the Army's chemical branch was short of officers," he said, "so my first assignment after the Chemical Officer Basic Course was as a battalion-level chemical officer at Fort Bliss, Texas."

After that, Lakso served as a decontamination platoon leader, smoke platoon leader and company executive officer with the 92nd Chemical Company, 3rd Infantry Division in Germany. Upon completion of the Chemical Officer Advanced Course, Lakso was assigned as brigade chemical officer and Headquarters and Headquarters Company commander for 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, which included combat service in Operation Desert Storm.

Additional overseas assignments included operations officer for Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in Belgium; division chemical officer for 3rd and 1st Infantry divisions, Germany; operations officer, V Corps Chemical Section, Germany, which included a deployment to Bosnia in support of Operation Joint Endeavor; division chemical officer for 1st Infantry Division and 1st Armored Division, Germany, which included a deployment to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Stateside assignments include Force XXI digital training developer, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood; chief, Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Section of NORAD, Colorado Springs; and commander, 2nd Chemical Battalion, 48th Chemical Brigade, Fort Hood.

"My next assignment was to be a division chief in the Maneuver Support and Sustainment Directorate here at OTC," Lakso said, "but after I arrived here, General MacWillie (Brig. Gen. Don MacWillie, USAOTC commander) pulled me up to be the director due to a shortage of colonels within the command.

"Right after that, I found out I made the colonel's promotion list, so it all worked out," he said. "I should be promoted in early 2011."

Lakso joins OTC with some hands-on operational testing experience. "As a battalion commander," he said, "I participated in a couple of tests for OTC. I had always been a warfighter, so my first contact with testing was a huge learning experience that gave me an appreciation for what OTC does."

The first test was a major test event lasting months on the NBC-RV (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicle), according to Lakso, and the second test a few weeks later was a rapid acquisition test that only lasted a few days.

Lakso is married and has two sons: John Jr., a student at Duke University, and Conrad, a sixth-grader at St. Mary's Catholic School in Temple. His wife, Wendy, is the Fort Hood health promotion officer as part of III Corps.

Awards include the Bronze Star Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal with four oak leaf clusters, Joint Service Commendation Medal and Army Commendation Medal with three oak leaf clusters. He is also a graduate of Airborne and Jumpmaster schools, Command and General Staff College and the Joint Professional Military Education Phase II course.