Leighton Chapman Atteberry

West Point, 1965

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Richard S. Sullivan on December 29, 2015:

I last saw Leighton in 1954, I was 14, Leighton was 12. We lived across the street from each other, I was 1t 5600 N. 19th Street in Arlington. I remember his dad Roy, who was a rather nice dad and not overly strict like many of the other military fathers in our neighborhood a few miles from the Pentagon. Leighton always said he was going to go to West Point so one day I started searching the West Point class websites online. For a time I had no luck, but eventually I went to '65 class and there was a Leighton Chapman Atterberry, I knew his middle name because when his mom was mad, she always said his full name very slowly one word at a time. So how many Leighton Chapman Atterberry's can there be at West Point. This was about 2011 or 2012 so I left a message on the website and got an answer within a day or two. I got a phone number and called him in Houston. Your mind will stick with your last memories of someone, answering the phone was the voice of a man close to my 72 years, not a 12-year-old kid that used to bike up to Little Falls on the Potomac with me to fish,. That was a hefty ride for two 12 and 13-year-old kids. We even caught a catfish once, but my mom would not cook it. I do recall that when I talked to him he was not real cheerful, I sensed he was trying to act cheerful so he may have known of the life crisis he was facing at that time. There was not a lot of "Oh wow!" in his manner, but we chatted for a while, and both expressed amazement at connecting with each other after 60 years. That connection was only possible due to my knowing his middle name and the West Point connection. It is not often in life one connects back up with an old friend after 60 years of not knowing anything about them, or where they are, or where they have been. I still owe him five dollars on a bet I reneged on when we were kids. I will send it to anyone in the family who is heir to the estate. I had planned on someday getting to Houston and paying him back. The bet? I had said that Ford was part of General Motors, he said no it wasn't, and bet me five dollars. I lost --but five dollars? That was dinner for two at a good restaurant in 1953. It was a blow hard bet by two kids, but a bet's a bet. OK, but not with compounded interest. Goodbye, Leighton. Dick Sullivan Santa Fe NM HonFrps

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