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Retired Guard commander killed in D.C. crash

The former commanding general of the D.C. National Guard was one of the nine people killed in the deadly train collision Monday in Washington, D.C., according to the National Guard Bureau.

Air Force Maj. Gen. David F. Wherley Jr. and his wife, Ann, were killed when a train on Metrorail’s red line ran into the back of a train that had stopped on the same track.

From July 2003 until his retirement in 2008, Wherley was commanding general of Joint Force Headquarters, D.C. National Guard, where he was responsible for operational readiness and command and control of the 2,500 soldiers and airmen in the D.C. Army and Air National Guard.

“We are all deeply saddened by this sudden and tragic loss of General Wherley and his wife, Ann,” said Maj. Gen. Errol R. Schwartz, Commanding General of Joint Force Headquarters, District of Columbia National Guard. “I am personally grieved by this unbelievable tragedy. David Wherley and Ann were two of the best people you could ever want to know. This community will grieve, as will the entire National Guard throughout the country who knew and loved them both.”

Wherley began his military career in 1969 when he was commissioned as a second lieutenant through the ROTC program at Fordham University in New York. During his career, he commanded two flying squadrons, served in a number of staff assignments and deployed as the deputy operations group commander for fighters at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.

A Fighter Weapons Instructor Course graduate in the F-4, Wherley had more than 5,000 hours of flying time in a multitude of missions, according to his biography.

Wherley and his wife leave behind a son, David, a noncommissioned officer in the Army Golden Knights, and daughter, Betsy.

The two trains collided about 5 p.m. Monday in what officials said was the worst crash in the 30-plus-year history of Metro. Nine people — two men and seven women — were killed and more than 70 others were injured. Investigators continued Tuesday to determine the cause of the crash, which happened when a stopped train was rear-ended by another. The violent impact of the collision sent the second train into the air, its front cars coming to rest on top of the stopped train.

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The Associated Press contributed to this story.