ColonelJoseph H. Alexander, USMC (Ret), served 29 years on active duty as an assault amphibian officer, including two tours in Vietnam and service as Chief of Staff, 3d Marine Division, in the Western Pacific. He is a distinguished graduate of the Naval War College and holds degrees in history from North Carolina, Jacksonville, and Georgetown.
Colonel Alexander, an independent historian in Asheville, North Carolina, wroteClosing In: Marines in the Seizure of Iwo JimaandAcross the Reef: The Marine Assault on Tarawain this series. His book,Utmost Savagery: The Three Days of Tarawa(Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1995), won the 1995 General Wallace M. Greene Award of the Marine Corps Historical Foundation. He is also co-author (with Lieutenant Colonel Merrill L. Bartlett) ofSea Soldiers in the Cold War(Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1983).