Colonel Lou Mason was born at Fort Bragg, North Carolina in 1945. In 1967, he entered active duty through the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), Program and graduated from Southern Mississippi. Colonel Mason served tours with the 5th Special Forces in Republic Vietnam (RVN) (Detachment B-55), and later as the Chief, Supply Division, G-4, US Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School (JFK) Center for Military Assistance. He further was assigned to the 530th S&S Battalion as a company commander. He also served in a variety of parachute rigger/aerial delivery positions with the 82nd Airborne, the US Embassy Cambodia, Medical Equipment Delivery Team Cambodia (MEDTC) and the Airborne Department, Fort Benning, Georgia. He was then posted to the ROTC Department at North Alabama, and further to a second tour, JFK Center for Military Assistance, as Chief of Logistics. Prior to returning for yet another tour with Special Operations, he completed two years as the Chief Supply Systems, US Forces Korea (USFK). In 1984, as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics (DCSLOG) 1st Special Operations Command, he championed the establishment of the 528th Special Operation Support Battalion which he commanded upon activation in June 1986. In 1988, he became the Chief Organization & Mission, Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), and later as the Director of Operations, US Army Materiel Command (AMC). Colonel Mason was a Command and General Staff College (CGSC) and the Army War College (AWC) graduate, in addition to receiving postgraduate degrees from North Alabama and Georgia State. After retiring he was appointed to Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), serving for numerous years spearheading advanced technology development for operations and logistics web-based collaborative and agent-based future command and control systems.