Michael Wyly enlisted in the US Marine Corps in 1957 at the age of 17 and was commissioned as a US Marine Corps Second Lieutenant upon graduation from the US Naval Academy in 1962. Colonel Wyly served two tours in Vietnam—during which he was wounded in the head and received the Purple Heart Medal. In the years following Vietnam, Colonel Wyly led a revision of US Marine Corps tactics with a view toward making them fully relevant to the demands of modern war. Colonel Wyly was a principal author of the FMFM 1 – Warfighting manual, a seminal doctrinal publication that cemented the USMC’s adoption of maneuver warfare under the leadership of Commandant Al Gray. Following his retirement in 1992, Colonel Wyly founded the Bossov Ballet Theatre in Maine. He has continued to actively publish in professional journals on modern war and lead intellectual efforts designed to improve the US military’s operational and strategic capability set.