J. H. Binford Peay III
Recipient of the Purple Heart medal
James Henry Binford "Binnie" Peay III (born 10 May 1940) is a retired four-star general of the United States Army. He served as the 14th superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute from 2003 to 2020, and as chairman of the Allied Defense Group from 2001 to 2003. He has also served on various corporate and nonprofit boards.
Early life
Peay attained the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America in 1954 and as an adult is a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award. His father, Peay Jr. and both of his sons, Jim and Ryan, are also Eagle Scouts.
Peay graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1962 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering, where he was a quarterback on the football team and is an initiate of the Beta Commission of the Kappa Alpha Order; he was the first Kappa Alpha inducted into the Military Division when it was established in 2009. He also has a Master of Arts from George Washington University and graduated from the United States Army Command and General Staff College in June 1971 and the United States Army War College in June 1978.
Military career
Peay was commissioned as a second lieutenant of Field Artillery in 1962. His initial troop assignments were in Germany and Fort Carson, Colorado.
“J. H. Binford Peay III” enters the record as recipient of the Purple Heart medal. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Binford, Peay and Recipient can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“J. H. Binford Peay III” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Binford, Peay and Recipient provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1274149. VIAF identifies the subject as 16821912. The Library of Congress control number is no96058417. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1940, 2003, 2020 and 2001.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “J. H. Binford Peay III”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow J. H. Binford Peay III primary sources, J. H. Binford Peay III archive and Binford research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “J. H. Binford Peay III”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “J. H. Binford Peay III” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.