Colley graduated with distinction from the
United States Naval Academy in June 1960. He had sea duty assignments on several nuclear-powered
submarines and was Commanding Officer of the
attack submarine . He was Commander of the
Navy Recruiting Command for three years, and Deputy Commander of the submarine directorate in
the Pentagon. He earned a master's degree in Computer Systems from the
Naval Postgraduate School. Other operational assignments included command of the
submarine tender in
Guam and the
Navy's largest submarine squadron in
Groton, Connecticut. During the first
Gulf War, he was
commander of the
Pacific Fleet submarine force of over 40 boats from his headquarters at
Pearl Harbor. Earlier, he was Director, Division of Mathematics and Science (including the departments of math, physics, chemistry, oceanography and computer science) at the
Naval Academy. ==Activism and views==