Posted by John J.Byrne on June 10, 2009:

One of the fortunate happenings in my life was to be assigned to the same company (D-1) as John Miles O'Connor. He was smart, generous with his time, artistic and had a wonderful sense of humor. He kept us all amused with his cartoons. I kept two of them for over 50 years--one was entitled "Moriarity is back and Maj. Starr got him." Dan was a special swimming cadet. The other was entitled "The Birth of Grandpa Detry." John would have been a huge success as a political cartoonist. Actually, he became one of the premier water colorists in the country. John and I were also regular "area birds". I think we were both too young to appreciate the gravity of the situation!! We both had an inordinate interest in the meaning of words. We use to test each other while walking the area but ended up with so many additional demerits for talking that we had to give that up. Later in life we both became lawyers--a profession where the meaning of words is paramount. Although I seldom saw John, his passing hurt. We lost one of the finest men who ever graduated from the Acadamy.

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