| (December 14, 1944 – c. December 30, 2010) |
Early life
John Parsons Wheeler III descended from a family of military professionals which included Joseph Wheeler, who had served as a general both in the Confederate Army, and later with the United States Army. Wheeler III was born in Laredo, Texas, where his mother was staying with her mother while his father was in Europe. Five days after the delivery, the family received a telegram that his father was missing in action in the Battle of the Bulge. His father was later found to be alive.[4]Military career
Wheeler was a member of the United States Military Academy class of 1966 which lost 10 percent of its members in the Vietnam War.[4]After graduating from West Point, he was a fire control platoon leader at a MIM-14 Nike-Hercules base at Franklin Lakes, New Jersey from 1966 to 1967. From 1967 to 1969 he was a graduate student at Harvard Business School spending the summer of 1968 as a systems analyst for Office of Secretary of Defense in Washington, DC. From 1969 to 1970 he served in a non-combat position at Long Binh in Vietnam. From 1970 to 1971 he served on the General Staff at The Pentagon[2]
Wheeler's West Point and laters years are featured prominently in Rick Atkinson's book, "The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966."
Law career
After leaving the military he was a senior planner for Amtrak in 1971 and 1972. From 1972 to 1975 he attended law school at Yale University becoming a clerk for George E. MacKinnon in 1975–76 and an associate for Shea & Gardner in 1976–78. From 1978 to 1986 he was Assistant General Counsel, Special Counsel to Chairman, and Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission.[2]Vietnam Veterans Memorial
From 1979 to 1989 he was chairman of Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund that built the Vietnam Veterans Memorial which opened in 1982. He had supported the controversial Maya Lin design and ran afoul of Ross Perot and Jim Webb who tried to oust him after they disagreed with the stark design. Wheeler worked to address their issues by adding The Three Soldiers sculpture by Frederick Hart to the memorial.In 1983, Carlton Sherwood ran a four part series on WDMV-TV (now WUSA) "Vietnam Memorial: A Broken Promise?" which focused on Wheeler's handling of the Memorial Fund saying that most of the $9 million raised for the memorial was not accounted for. In the piece, Sherwood cast aspersions on Wheeler's career questioning his decision not go directly to Vietnam out of West Point and noting he had been disciplined shortly after arriving in Vietnam in 1969 for "misappropriation" of government property. A General Accounting Office audit spurred by the television report cleared Wheeler. WMDV made an on-air apology and donated $50,000 to the memorial.[4]
In 1985, he published the memoir Touched With Fire: The Future of the Vietnam Generation, a book about the post-war experiences of Vietnam soldiers and anti-war protesters.
Other service
In 1988–89, Wheeler worked with George H.W. Bush to establish the Earth Conservation Corps. From 1997 to 2001, he was President and CEO, Deafness Research Foundation. He was consultant to acting Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics from 2001 to 2005, Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force from 2005 to 2008. From 2008 to 2009, he was Special Assistant to the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Logistics and Energy. From 1983 to 1987, he was Chairman and CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and from 1993 until his death, he was the founding CEO of Vietnam Children's Fund.[2]Death
Wheeler was allegedly seen on December 28, 2010, exiting an Amtrak train,[5] and later, on the afternoon of December 30, 2010, at 10th and Orange streets in Wilmington.[6] On December 31, his body was seen by a landfill worker falling onto a trash heap in the Cherry Island Landfill.[7] Police ruled his death a homicide and claimed that "all the stops made Friday (December 31) by the garbage truck before it arrived at the landfill involved large commercial disposal bins in Newark (Delaware), several miles from Wheeler's home."[5]Wheeler's neighbor of seven months, Ron Roark, said that he had met Wheeler only once and rarely saw him. Roark claimed that, in the days prior to Wheeler's death, he (Roark) and his family heard, from outside the Wheeler residence, a loud television within the home that was constantly on, though no one appeared to be home.[8]
According to the Washington Post, Wheeler was sighted on December 29 at the New Castle County courthouse parking garage, disoriented and wearing only one shoe, as the other was ripped. Wheeler, attempting to gain access to the parking garage on foot, claimed that he wanted to warm up before paying a parking fee. (Police later determined that his car was not actually in the parking garage, but rather at a train station.) Wheeler explained to the parking garage attendant that his briefcase had been stolen and repeatedly denied being intoxicated. It is also claimed that, on December 29, Wheeler asked a pharmacist for a ride to Wilmington and "looked upset." The pharmacist offered to call a cab for Wheeler, at which point Wheeler left the store.[9]
On December 30, Wheeler was sighted wandering various office buildings, including Mitre and DuPont locations, where he refused offers of assistance from several individuals.[9] On January 28, 2011, the Delaware state medical examiner's office reported Wheeler's cause of death as assault and "blunt force trauma" without elaboration.[1]
Wheeler's body will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors in April 2011.[10]
Bibliography
- Wheeler, John (January 1982). "Theological Reflections upon the Vietnam War". Anglican Theological Review 64 (1): 1–14.
- Wheeler, John (1984). Touched with Fire: The Future of the Vietnam Generation. New York: Watts. ISBN 053109832X. OCLC 10207966.
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