Replies

Maybe we should e-mail Greta to get back on this story.

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VAN SUSTEREN: When was the last time you had any — when was the last time you had any communication with him?

SCALES: I talked to him about a month ago. We had a — we were talking about some issues related to doctrine. And we communicated occasionally by e-mail. He was my roommate when we were sophomores at West Point. Jack was a star man all four years. That means he was in the top 5 percent of the class. And as his roommate, I was in the top 5 percent of the bottom fifth of the class. And so Jack was responsible for getting me through physics and chemistry. And had it not been for him, I probably would have been a civilian at the end of my sophomore year, Greta.

VAN SUSTEREN: What — well, you’re lucky to have known him then. You — because you — you wouldn’t have had your military career. What was his military career?

SCALES: Jack served honorably in Vietnam. He was — he went to graduate school, of course, after he graduated because those in the top 5 percent had that privilege. Served in Vietnam. He got out of the Army in 1971. As you may recall, Greta, he was the motive force behind the design and the building and the fund-raising for the Vietnam memorial. And it was Jack Wheeler more than anyone else who was — who was a motive force in getting that magnificent memorial built.

And many of us, frankly, in the early ‘80s were opposed to what was then called, you know, the wall. But Jack understood the iconic nature of that memorial, and he was smart enough to figure out how lasting and fitting that memorial would be for generations of veterans. And so his — I believe his great legacy to the nation is the fact that that memorial never would have happened had it not been for the drive and the determination of my good friend, Jack Wheeler.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, so now the weird details and the distressing ones. The Philadelphia Enquirer is reporting that he may have been involved in the attempted arson of a home of his neighbor that he was feuding with. And you hear the bloodshot eyes, may have been disoriented, carrying his shoe. When you read all those bits and pieces of information, what do you think?

SCALES: It’s not the Jack Wheeler I knew. No. Jack was a kind, an intelligent, a very urbane, a very polished, very articulate man, a very empathetic man, a very kind person. Those images — and I just saw some of those images on your screen — that’s just not the Jack Wheeler that I knew.

And I’m saddened by the fact that the images that our viewers will have of this great man are those sad images in that parking garage. No, no. The Jack Wheeler I knew was a much, much, much different man than the person you see in those images, Greta.

VAN SUSTEREN: Is there any sort of suggestion — have you heard from any of your classmates, anybody who’d known him in the last months or anything whether he might have had a drug or alcohol problem and you know, whether he just got himself into a fix and then sort of got a bad robbery or anything like that, or any work-related project that was unusual?

SCALES: No. Look, obviously, I’m not a detective, nor am I a doctor, I just know the man’s character, as do many of my classmates. No, Jack Wheeler, to my knowledge, never abused anything. He was the sort of person who had a very tempered personally. He was very mild-mannered. He was very kind. He had a brilliant intellect. He was extremely empathetic. He had an enormous love for veterans and also for our men and women serving in uniform, and in fact, devoted most of his adult life after he left the military in serving our men and women in uniform. No, all those images that I see, Greta, simply don’t reflect the Jack Wheeler that I knew.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, it certainly is bizarre. We keep getting more information every single day, and it even looks stranger. General Scales, thank you, and hurry back to Washington, sir.

SCALES: I will, Greta. It’s good to see you.

VAN SUSTEREN: Nice to see you.