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John A. Wickham Jr.

United States Army general (1928–2024)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ465086 ↗
Source-derived summary

John Adams Wickham Jr. (25 June 1928 – 11 May 2024) was a United States Army general who served as the United States Army Chief of Staff from 1983 to 1987.

Early life and education

Wickham was born on 25 June 1928, in Dobbs Ferry, New York. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1950, where he later served as a social sciences instructor, from 1956 to 1960.

Military career

Upon graduation from the Military Academy in 1950, Wickham was commissioned a second lieutenant and assigned to the 18th Infantry Regiment and then the 6th Infantry Regiment in West Berlin. He served as a platoon leader and company executive officer in the 511th Airborne Infantry Regiment and served as an aide-de-camp to the commander in the 37th Infantry Division and 10th Infantry Division. He received master's degrees in economics and government from Harvard University and was a graduate of the National War College and Armed Forces Staff College.

Wickham then served as operations officer of the 1st Battle Group, 5th Cavalry Regiment, in South Korea, and was executive officer to Chief of Staff of the United States Army, General Harold Johnson. Later he commanded in combat the 5th Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division in South Vietnam, where he was seriously wounded by a satchel charge explosive. He made his way to a foxhole and continued to command his men.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “John A. Wickham Jr.” as united States Army general (1928–2024). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around John, Wickham and United.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1928, 2024, 1983, 1987—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1928-06-25. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with John, Wickham and United providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “John A. Wickham Jr.”, the useful work is to connect “united States Army general (1928–2024)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

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 Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q465086. VIAF identifies the subject as 1387389. The Library of Congress control number is n83143312. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1928, 2024, 1983 and 1987.

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The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. 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.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “John A. Wickham Jr.” 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.