James M. McGarrah
United States naval and naval reserve officer
James "Jim" M. McGarrah is the chief of staff at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. He was previously director of the Information and Communications Laboratory at the Georgia Tech Research Institute and is a retired officer of the United States Navy Reserve.
Early life and education
McGarrah attended Francis C. Hammond High School in Alexandria, Virginia, graduating in 1969.
McGarrah graduated from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering in 1973. He also holds a Master of Arts in human resource management from Pepperdine University in 1978 and a Master of Science in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1979. While at Georgia Tech, he took a job as a graduate teaching assistant.
Navy
In 1973, McGarrah received his naval commission, and served in the United States Navy and the United States Navy Reserve for a total of 33 years. From 1973 to 1976, he served on the USS Belknap (CG-26) as Electronic Warfare Officer and Damage Control Assistant, and on the USS Hoist (ARS-40) after the Belknap's collision with the John F. Kennedy in 1975.
In 2003, he was nominated for promotion from rear admiral (lower half) to rear admiral.
On July 9, 2004, when McGarrah was a rear admiral, the Secretary of the Navy, Gordon R. England, appointed him the Director of the Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants (OARDEC).
“James M. McGarrah” enters the record as united States naval and naval reserve officer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what James, McGarrah and United can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“James M. McGarrah” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, James, McGarrah and United provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q14574441. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1969, 1973, 1978 and 1979.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. 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 “James M. McGarrah”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow James M. McGarrah primary sources, James M. McGarrah archive and James 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 “James M. McGarrah”?
- 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 “James M. McGarrah” 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.