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&lt;p&gt;On the morning of December 31, the body of longtime military and government consultant John P. Wheeler was discovered in a landfill in Newark, Delaware.  Police reported that Wheeler, a three-time presidential aide and prominent player in both private and public sector military circles, was murdered.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Perhaps best known for his high-profile government roles (the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall was built under his direction as chairman of the Memorial Fund), Wheeler also built a career in consulting that saw him work as a &quot;self-employed specialist in startups and turnarounds of companies,&quot; a special advisor to top brass in the Air Force, Department of Defense and the SEC, and as a military consultant to the MITRE Corporation, a position he held upon his death.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While police have uncovered little regarding the circumstances of Wheeler&#39;s killing, conspiracy theories have already begun making the rounds, fueled by the manner in which his body was disposed of and by his connections to elite government institutions.  Was Wheeler actually a longtime government/military agent, a maker of enemies by trade?  Or was he simply the earnest, intelligent consultant that his career chronology suggests?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&#39;s possible that he was a bit of both.  Wheeler&#39;s military roots run very deep, from his West Point days to his service in Vietnam and to the veterans he fought beside; in the government, Wheeler served as a military advisor to presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and George W. Bush.  MITRE, his most recent employer, is a not-for-profit that puts federal research funds to use studying new military and security technologies.  As is commonplace in the military consulting industry&amp;mdash;top military brass often move back and forth between public sector consultancies (like Booz Allen) and government spots&amp;mdash;Wheeler held a largely undefined role at MITRE, serving only as a consultant.  It is known that Wheeler was recently an outspoken critic of the nation&#39;s cybersecurity infrastructure, which he deemed vulnerable, perhaps as a result of his work at MITRE (which counts cybersecurity among its strengths).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ambiguous government past or not, military consulting can be a dangerous trade in its own right.  Unlike those at MITRE, many consultants are contracted into extremely dangerous situations, occasionally resulting in injuries or even death.  In 2003, for example, a plane carrying three Northrop Grumman intelligence consultants was shot down over FARC-controlled rainforest in Colombia.  All three, who were conducting drug surveillance, were captured and held hostage for more than five years until a dramatic rescue by the Colombian Army liberated them.  For more recent examples, one need not look further than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; scores of consultants, often supporting IT infrastructure for the US military, have been attacked, kidnapped, shot, or killed since the wars began.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Of course, Wheeler wasn&#39;t flying over guerilla territory or dodging IEDs in Fallujah when he was killed&amp;mdash;which makes the situation all the more intriguing.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So, what happened to John P. Wheeler?  Was he a shadowy government agent, as conspiracy theorists would have you believe?   A pawn in a Bond-worthy game of global dominion?  Or was he simply a victim of his own private-sector profession, whacked because he knew too much?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Of course, it could easily have been something far, far more familiar to us know-nothing citizens on the ground&amp;mdash;a routine murder over nothing less than a lousy couple of bucks.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Stay tuned.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For more information:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;em&gt;The Washington Post&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt; ABC News: Police report new sighting of John Wheeler III, the man found dead in landfill&lt;br&gt; Second Line of Defense: John Wheeler (note: Wheeler was a founding member and regular contributor to SLD)&lt;/p&gt;

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