Peter Michael Connor

West Point, 1968

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Fr. Michael Cerrone on August 29, 2006:

Pete Connor and I, along with Bill Higgins, were Pacelli High School classmates in Columbus, Georgia, and lived at Fort Benning with our military fathers and families, before entering beast barracks. We obviously didn't do any socializing outside our companies for most of plebe year; but by yearling year and afterward, Pete and I got together fairly often to play handball, at which his intense, competitive spirit usually drove him to victory over me. On the occasion of a return visit to Fort Benning, either before our firstie year or soon after commissioning, he and I and a couple other friends went to the golf course. Instigated by Pete, we rented some golf carts, not so much to play the course as to drive all around it, pretending that we were armored cav or tank commmanders. Needless to say, word got back to the head pro, who sternly warned us about "conduct unbecoming!" The last memory I had of 2LT Peter Connor was when several of us young officers, including Bill Higgins, dressed in Army Blues and participated as honorary sword bearers at the wedding of two of our high school classmates. It was certainly a shock when Bill told me, during our visit together in Vietnam, that Pete had been killed instantly several months before. He is buried at West Point. "May he rest in peace."

admin