Posted by Terry Powers on January 22, 2023:

JOHN H. CRONIN JR. 1949 Cullum No. 17042-1949 | February 21, 2011 | Died in Fredericksburg, VA Cremated. Interred in Ft. Sam Huston, TX John Henry "Jack" Cronin, Jr. was born in Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, DC, on Mar 24, 1928. He was the youngest of three children and the only son of Gertrude Donovan and John Henry Cronin, Sr. Jack's survivors are his wife Jane, whom he met on a blind date in 1947 and mar­ried on graduation day 1949; their daugh­ter Donna; grandson Michael; and grand­daughter Teresa and her four daughters, who Jack called "The Greats." Son Mike, a 1973 graduate of West Point, died in Alexandria, VA, six weeks before Jack. The family was remarkably close and loving. Perhaps most notably, each member strongly displayed personal independence and a sense of humor. Jack and Jane saw to that in both their personal lives and those of both children. At the tender age of six, Jack saw air­planes at Boston Logan Airport and told his mother he wanted to fly them. In 1950, at Vance AFB, Enid, OK, his boyhood dream became a reality when he became an Air Force pilot. Jack graduated from Gulf Coast Military Academy, later attended Millard preparatory school in Washington, DC, and received a presidential appointment to West Point in 1945. The 1949 Howitzer notes that Jack "came to us a happy carefree lad and de­parted quite the same." Jack never lost his sunny, optimistic view of life, but he was a serious worker. In the Air Force, and in his later civilian career, Jack was an idea man and thus a quiet, restless rebel. During 1950 to 1960, he participated in such "firsts" as piloting the B-45, which was part of the first non-Strategic Air Command Air Force unit armed with nu­clear weapons. He also was the first to plan for nuclear "limited wars" and the first to organize the Europe-wide alerting exercises of NATO forces. Likewise he was the fi rst to develop the concept and plan for actually assembling NATO's civil wartime agencies and executing plans for control of alliance matters, such as communications, transpor­tation, petroleum, the civilian population, and refugees. Jack's independent military activities were numerous. As a squadron pilot he commandeered $65.00 worth of electrical parts and fabricated a device for in-flight training of pilots and crew members on em­ploying nuclear weapons. The device later was adopted and manufactured by the U.S. Air Force. Jack received the first of his five Legions of Merit for that. Later in his career he was to be given his sixth Legion of Merit, but he asked "may I have something else" and received the Bronze Star. Often an independent actor but always a team player, Jack never wavered from the prin­ciples of the Long Gray Line: "Duty, Honor, Country." He spent his life doing his utmost every day in every way in fierce hon­esty and in total dedication to his country-smiling all the way. Until we meet again, may God bless you both.

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