Colonel

In the United States Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force, colonel is the most senior field grade military officer rank, immediately above the rank of lieutenant colonel and immediately below the rank of brigadier general. It is equivalent to the naval rank of captain in the other uniformed services. The pay grade for colonel is O-6.

In film
There are three known Special Forces colonels featured during the course of the film.

Notable Colonels

 * Col. Cai
 * Col. Kirby
 * Col. Morgan

Trivia

 * Actor John Wayne often held the rank of colonel in several of his action films. Never one to portray military characters that were "pencil-pushing" administrative officers, Wayne frequently portrayed rugged, boots-on-the-ground officers. Because of this, his characters were never generals. The Green Berets would be one of his final film roles casting him as colonel. Before this film however, Wayne made other previous films including Jet Pilot (1957) as Col. Jim Shannon, The Horse Soldiers (1959) as Col. John Marlowe and The Alamo (1960) as Col. Davey Crockett. His final two film roles as an army colonel included The Undefeated (1969) as Col. John Henry Thomas and Rio Lobo (1970) as Col. Cord McNally.