Body of US Military Expert found in DE landfill

January 3, 2011 · By Jerry Castillo

John P. Wheeler III

John P. Wheeler III

John P. Wheeler III, 66, was found dead in a Delaware landfill, and his death has been ruled a homicide by Newark, Del., police. They are asking the public for leads in the case.

The Wilmington News Journal reported that Wheeler was last seen riding an Amtrak train from Washington to Wilmington, Del., last Tuesday.

The death has shocked those who knew him. Former Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne, for whom Wheeler worked as a special assistant during the last four years of the George W. Bush administration, told Fox News he was “stunned” to learn of Wheeler’s death. He called Wheeler a “patriot to the first order,” saying, “he’s the most unlikely candidate for someone to do this to.”

“This is just not the kind of guy who gets murdered,” an attorney who used to represent Wheeler told the News Journal.

Why this matters.

1. He was a leading voice for veterans
Wheeler, who served in Vietnam, was chair of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the organization that constructed the nation’s official war memorial in Washington, D.C. He also called for recognition of wounded veterans, writing, “We need to honor the wounded as well as those who died.”

2. He worked for three presidents
Wheeler was no stranger to the corridors of American power, having worked for Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, all of whom turned to Wheeler for advice on defense and military matters.

3. He urged top universities to drop their opposition to ROTC
Before the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” several elite schools, including Harvard, linked their opposition of ROTC recruiting on campus to the controversial military policy. Wheeler, a staunch supporter of ROTC, blasted this position. (Now that the policy has been repealed, Harvard and Yale say they are reconsidering their stance on ROTC.)

4. He was the author of the memoir “Touched by Fire”
The Atlantic’s James Fallows worked with Wheeler on the tome, which discussed the experiences of Vietnam veterans and protesters after the war.

5. He held key government and defense positions
According to his official bio at Second Line of Defense, a military and security website to which he contributed, Wheeler served as secretary of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and was most recently special assistant to the secretary of the Air Force.

Police believe Wheeler’s body had been placed inside one of the bins in Newark before a disposal truck arrived. They are investigating several “locations of interest” in the city. The Newark Police Department is asking anyone with information regarding Wheeler to contact them at 1-800-TIP-3333.

Wheeler graduated from West Point in 1966, and had a law degree from Yale and a business degree from Harvard.

Resource: aolnews.com, nytimes.com

One Response

  1. Tweets that mention Body of US Military Expert found in DE landfill | USFallen.org -- Topsy.com

    January 3rd, 2011 at 11:13 PM

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