Posted by John W. O'Neil on April 5, 2012:

I am very sorry to hear of the recent passing of my Uncle Col. Joseph W O'Neil. Uncle Joe, although only 12 years older than I, was clearly was a very positive role model during my early years. He and a classmate visited my school in their full dress uniforms and gave a talk on life at West Point. The fact that I had an uncle at West Point was very impressive to my classmates in a small New Hampshire town. He was no ordinary cadet as he was consistiently in the top 5% of his class academically. He went on to become an Air Force Officer serving for over 30 years and seeing combat in the Vietnam war. Through his example and influence I dreamed of going to West Point and becoming a military pilot. I accomplished half of that dream eventually becoming a US Navy Jet Pilot. He helped considerably in that pursuit as while he was getting a Masters Degree at MIT he tutored me in Freshman Calculus and I learned more from him in a couple of 2 hour sessions that in entire semesters of classroom instruction. His inate intelligence and way of comminicating was nothing short of amazing. That experience was instrumental in my graduating with an engineering degree from a top university and getting accepted into the Naval Flight Program. During one summer while I was a university student I worked in the Pikes Peak area of Colorado and had the opportunity to visit him and his family while he was on an instructor tour at the Air Force Academy. He took great pride is showing me around the Academy and further reinforcing my strong interest in becoming a military pilot. He spent time as a legislative aid to Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, with whom he shared a common Irish Americam heritage, and loved to tell stories of accompanying Tip on trips to Ireland and the great times they had there. When he retired he returned to Ireland many times, in some cases bringing his entire family. He enjoyed his retirement in Florida where he lived near to where my parents were also living in retirement and they where able to see each other frequently. I greatly enjoyed to opportunity to visit with he and his wife, Marci, when I visited the area and particularly enjoyed hearing the stories about his West Point days and with great pride he would talk about one of his roomates, former Army Chief of Staff Gen Carl Vuono. Rest in Peace Uncle Joe.

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