Posted by Jeanine Neilond on August 2, 2007:

(The following biographical sketch appeared in TAPS, Vol. LXV, No. 3, Jan/Feb 2007, pg. 25): Patrick McAlester Neilond was born in Ft. Sill, OK, where his parents, Earle Starr Neilond and Hazel Ruth Moore, were stationed. Tragically, Earle died of pneumonia five years later. Pat and his mother traveled to the Orient to stay with friends and in 1932 settled in San Francisco, where Ruth spent a career serving as a civilian with the Department of the Army at Ft. Mason. In high school, Pat earned the Eagle Scout rating and 42 merit badges. At 18, he enlisted in the Army and attended the West Point Preparatory School at Ft. Scott, CA, where he graduated first in his class. Winning both a Presidential and an at-large Army appointment, he selected the latter and fulfilled his boyhood dream of entering West Point. He arrived on 1 July 1941 and joined the Class of 1945, which became the "D-Day" Class of 1944. As a member of Cadet Company G-2, Pat's leadership ability became obvious by his selection as a Yearling corporal and then as batallion sergeant major during his First Class year. During the fall, he was an active participant in the debating society, a member of the Howitzer staff, and a devotee of fencing. Other activities included lacrosse, skiing, and photography. His classmates descibed him as "notable for his loyalty to California" and noted "his freedom from academic worries and his rare ability to converse intelligently on any subject." He was of "genial disposition, good-looking, witty, capable--Pat made many real friends. His interesting personality and strong character were results of high standards set for himself and of his determination to achieve his goals. We all agree that Pat has a brilliant Army career ahead of him." He graduated in the upper third of his class and selected the branch of his father, Field Artillery. He then headed for training at Ft, Sill, OK, cut short by Gen. George Marshall's order to send the Class of 1944 into combat by New Year's Day. On 10 Oct 1944, he arrived at Camp Shelby, MS, assigned to the 69th Infantry Division, and sailed to Europe aboard the Queen Mary. He entered combat in France in March 1945 as an artillery forward observer and earned the Bronze Star Medal for valor. He fought with the "Fighting 69th" through the Rhineland, across the Rhine River and on to Leipzig, and then met up with the Soviets at Torgau in April. After V-J Day, as the 69th was demobilizing, he was transferred to the 29th Infantry Division. Pat thought of this moment as a major juncture in his Army career. Beginning here occurred a series of events that he liked to call his "Sorbonne Victories". In a highly-competitive selection process, he won the right to attend the French Language and Civilization course at Universite Paris, Sorbonne. He described his studies there as four months of "file boning", interspersed with occasional breaks at sidewalk cafes on "Boul Mich" (Blvd. St. Michel, aside the Sorbonne) and the rare trek to the clubs in Pigalle. The first of the four Sorbonne Victories was his three-fold sojourn in Belgium and France. From June 1946 to April 1947, he was commanding officer, Military Intelligence Service-X with the British, to award decorations to Belgians who helped Allied aviators escape capture by German troops during the occupation. There, he met and married Jeanine Van Waeyenberghe. From April 1947 to April 1948, he served as liason officer with the Foreign Liquidation Commission in Paris. Pat and Jeanine returned to the States in May 1948, and he served with the G-2 division, Department of the Army. In January 1949, son Michael was born at Walter Reed. In 1950, Pat "wangled" an assignment to the Infantry Associate Advanced Course at Ft. Benning, the first post-war artilleryman to do so. After graduation, he commanded C Battery, 10th Artillery. In 1951, he attended the Advanced Artillery Course at Ft. Sill, and in 1952 he was assigned to Korea, became a batallion commander, and earned another Bronze Star. From Korea, he served a four-year tour at G-2 Division, Headquarters, US Army Europe, in Heidelberg, Germany, where daughter Kathleen was born in 1955. In 1956, he attended the Command & General Staff College, Ft. Leavenworth, followed by a tour at Fourth Army Headquarters in San Antonio. In 1959, Sorbonne Victory #2 took place: he had been selected for military attache duty in Stockholm, but an unexpected vacancy in the attache's office in Morocco, plus Pat's fluency in French, led to a four-year tour in Rabat. He earned the Army Commendation Medal, and for a time was on TDY to Kinshasa in the Congo, establishing the attache office at the first U.S. Embassy there since Zaire's 1961 independence. After Morocco, he returned to the 10th Artillery at Ft. Benning, this time as the batallion's Commanding Officer. From 1964 to 1966, he served in another intelligence assignment at the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington, earning the Joint Service Commendation Medal. He attended the Army War College in Carlisle Barracks the following year. Then on to Sorbonne Victory #3: Pat was selected for duty as the Defense and Army Attache in Lebanon. The Six-Day Arab-Israeli War caused a one-year delay in this assignment, during which he studied Arabic at the Defense Language Institute. He called on Jeanine with her five-language capability to help him through his study of the "language of the Angels" (so termed by military language students, meaning only the Angels can learn it!) Finally arriving on station, he served in Beirut for three years, earning a Meritorious Service Medal. Finally, Sorbonne Victory #4: Pat was sent again to Zaire, this time as Defense Attache for a two-year tour, his last assignment in the service, for which he earned another Meritorious Service Medal. In 1974, Pat retired and entered civilian life with Jeanine in San Antonio, Texas, which they used as a treasured home base during a "second career" of ceaseless world travel adventures. He passed away on 5 August 2006. --Contributed by Classmates Doug Kinnard and E. Samuell, Jr., with the assistance of Jeanine Neilond.

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