Maj. Gen. John L. Barry is Director, Plans and Programs, Headquarters Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

Barry is a 1973 honor graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy. He graduated from Fighter Weapons School, and was a test and evaluation pilot at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. He was selected as a White House Fellow at NASA and worked as the NASA administrator's executive assistant and White House liaison during the Challenger accident, and he served as the Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and during the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

He has commanded an Air Force fighter squadron, and, in a combat zone, a fighter operations group and a composite wing. He served as commander of Air Force units, where he led the recovery of a wing following the Blackhawk helicopter shoot-down at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey. His assignment prior to his current position was the Strategic Planner for the U.S. Air Force.