Wheeler had a distinguished career in both the public and private sectors, and this line from his bio jumps out at us:
His career combines federal service and starting up, growing and turning around companies and charities. He was Secretary, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, on the team that worked major insider trader investigations, and consultant to the acting Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics regarding tankers and other issues.
Wheeler clearly had strong knowledge about tankers, their use and acquisition. Starting in 2009, he became a consultant for Mitre Corporation, a not-for-profit organization that manages federally funded research and development centers. Mitre currently operates such centers for the U.S. Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security, along with the IRS and the Federal Aviation Administration.
One of Mitre's components is the Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD), which is based in McLean, Virginia. Our research has found reports of alliances between Boeing and Mitre/CAASD--and that, of course, is not surprising considering Boeing's prominence in the American aerospace industry.
We are left, for now, with this question: Did John Wheeler, through his consultancy with Mitre, become an advocate for Boeing in the tanker-contract battle? Did that contribute to his puzzling and grisly death? Delawareonline.com reports:
Friends and neighbors were shocked to learn Wheeler had been murdered.
"This is just not the kind of guy who gets murdered," said Bayard Marin, a Wilmington attorney who represented Wheeler. "This is not the kind of guy you find in a landfill."
Wheeler worked in Washington, D.C., and was returning home to Delaware on an Amtrak train last Tuesday night. His body was discovered at the Cherry Island landfill on New Year's Eve and identified the next day. He was last seen getting off the Amtrak train in Wilmington.
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