Vaughan Wilson

Lieutenant General Samuel Vaughan Wilson (September 23, 1923 – June 10, 2017), aka "General Sam," completed his active military career in the fall of 1977, having divided his service almost equally between special operations and intelligence assignments.

He served as President of Hampden-Sydney College from 1992–2000 and as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from May 1976-August 1977; for his foundational work in doctrine for low intensity conflict, where he coined the term "counterinsurgency" (COIN); and for facilitating the drafting and passage of the Nunn-Cohen Amendment to the 1987 Defense Authorization Act, effectively creating the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict (ASD/SOLIC). He is also credited with helping to create Delta Force, the U.S. Army's premier counterterrorism unit.

As a general officer, some of his assignments included: Assistant Division Commander (Operations), 82nd Airborne Division; (First) United States Defense Attaché to the Soviet Union, Deputy to the Central Intelligence for the Intelligence Community, and Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. In his post-military career, he has been a Professor of Political Science and subsequently Wheat Professor of Leadership at the Wilson Center for Leadership in the Public Interest at Hampden–Sydney.

Wilson died from lung cancer on June 10, 2017.