Robert K. Wright Jr. | |
---|---|
Born | 1946 (age 78–79) |
Academic background | |
Education | College of the Holy Cross (BA) College of William & Mary (MA,PhD) |
Academic work | |
Discipline | American history |
Institutions | U.S. Naval Institute |
Military career | |
Service | ![]() ![]() |
Years of service | 1968–1996 |
Rank | ![]() |
Unit | 18th Military History Detachment |
Commands | 116th Military History Detachment |
Battles / wars | Vietnam War |
Robert K. Wright Jr. (born 1946) is an American military historian and author.[1]
Wright was raised inConnecticut. He attended theCollege of the Holy Cross inWorcester, Massachusetts, and earned a degree in history in 1968. He served in the U.S. Army as aTeletype operator inBerlin, after which he served with the 18thMilitary History Detachment where in 1969–1970 he devoted time recording the operations of the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam.[2]
Sergeant Wright received his honorable discharge in 1970. Under theGI Bill, he attended graduate school at theCollege of William and Mary in Virginia, earning aMaster of Arts in 1968 and aPh.D. in history in 1980. He spent the greater portion of his career at theUnited States Army Center of Military History in Washington, D.C. He was then commissioned in theVirginia Army National Guard in 1982 with the rank of captain where he commanded the 116th Military History Detachment in Manassas, Virginia, ultimately being promoted to a major. Wright served atFort Bragg, North Carolina from 1989 to 1991, as the XVIII Airborne Corps command historian, where he deployed with the corps to Panama (Operation Just Cause) and the first Persian Gulf war (Operation Desert Shield-Desert Storm). He also deployed to Somalia (Operation Restore Hope) as an Army Reservist as part of the first-ever joint history team composed of historians from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. In 2002 Wright retired from government service as the chief of the Center of Military History's library and archives. Wright's 1983 book,The Continental Army, is widely considered the standard reference work covering the army of theAmerican Revolutionary War.[2][3]