Wakefield Native General John R. Galvin Dies at Age of 86

General John Rogers Galvin, a Wakefield native who rose to become NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe in 1987, passed away in his home of Jonesboro, GA, on Friday, Sept. 25 at the age of 86.

Wakefield will be honoring Galvin with a moment of silence and lowering the town’s flags to half-staff.

Galvin was referred to as “a consummate soldier-statesman” by the Washington Post, and he would serve as the NATO top military commander in the five years that ended the Cold War, and play a part in some of the defining issues of our time, including support for the Gulf War, the Patriot missile defense of Israel, the rescue of 450,000 Kurdish refugees in northern Iraq, U.S. military operations in Zaire, Liberia and other African nations and humanitarian support for Central and Eastern countries. He has been decorated by 21 countries.

Galvin was born in Wakefield in 1929 and attended Wakefield public schools.

In 1948, he enlisted in the Massachusetts Army National Guard, where he served in the 182nd Infantry Regiment until 1950, when he received a National Guard appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he received a B.S. in Engineering and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant.

In the 1950s he served in infantry units in Puerto Rico and as a Ranger instructor in Columbia. His military service also included two years in the Vietnam War as staff officer in plans and operations and as commander of the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry.

A seven-year term of service in Europe, begun in 1973, would culminate in the appointment as Assistant Division Commander of the 8th Infantry Division in Mainz. He also served as the Commanding General of the United States VII Corps in Stuttgart, moving to Panama as Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Southern Command with the rank of general.

After five years of service in Latin America, in 1987 General Galvin was appointed Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (NATO), and the Commander of Chief of U.S. Army, Navy and Air Forces in Europe. After retiring from these positions in 1992, he was appointed Olin Distinguished Professor of National Security at West Point. He would go on to become Distinguished Policy Analyst, Mershon Center, The Ohio State University, and to serve on the board of the Raytheon Company, the Center for Creative Leadership, the Institute for Defense Analyses, the National Defense University and Chairman Emeritus of the American Council on Germany. He also served as an envoy of the United States State Department with the rank of Ambassador while assisting with negotiations in Bosnia.

Galvin was also an accomplished writer, having published articles on strategy, history and leadership, as well as Air Assault (1969), an analysis of the development of air mobility in 20th century warfare. Having perhaps inherited a love of history from his father, who was a favorite speaker at the Wakefield Historical Society, General Galvin has published two books on American history: The Minute Men (2006), a study of the first battle of the American Revolution; and Three Men of Boston (1997), covering political events in Massachusetts before the American Revolution.

Galvin retired to Georgia, but never forgot his roots in Wakefield.

In the foreword to the town’s 350th anniversary history, Wakefield: 350 Years by the Lake, Galvin wrote, “It is a town of extraordinary beauty, lying as it does in a gentle valley, with Crystal Lake near one end and Quannapowitt at the other, and down the centerline between these two runs the unusually broad Main Street, with its long town square, Rockery, Park and Common surrounded by the guardian churches – what could be more beautiful?”

Galvin will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery at a future date.