John joined 22 SAS Regiment from the Scots Guards in 1974. He subsequently enjoyed a full UK Special Forces career including; serving as the Special Operations Liaison Officer at the British Embassy in Washington DC, running the Special Forces Policy Desk in the UK Ministry of Defence, commanding 22 SAS from 1989 to 92 (a period which included Gulf War 1), commanding the UK Airborne Brigade from 1993 to 1996 and subsequently serving as Director of UK Special Forces, during which time he commanded Operation Barras in Sierra Leone in 2000. He opted for early retirement in 2002 and completed Project Unicorn, a counter-terrorist study for the Metropolitan Police and in 2003 he joined the Board of Erinys International. Subsequent to Gulf War 2 he was instrumental in creating a 15,000 man Oil Protection Force with its own air wing for the Coalition Provisional Authority. He resigned from Erinys in 2008 to concentrate on other projects.