MAJ PETER M. CUNNINGHAM, USAF
Lucky Bag Yearbook
From the 1959 Lucky Bag:
PETER M. CUNNINGHAM
First Company
Having overcome many obstacles prior to entering the Naval Academy, Pete was able to successfully cope with the obstacles of Plebe year. After this year his success with the women provided him and his roommates with a constant source of drags. Although his size kept him from participating in football, he showed great skill with a racquet and competed in Plebe and battalion tennis and company squash. Pete’s ambition and determination to succeed carried him through four years at the Academy and will undoubtedly make him a success after graduation.
Loss
Peter was lost on September 18, 1969 when the C-47 he was piloting crashed near McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Washington.
From Wikipedia:
18 September 1969: A U.S. Air Force twin engine Douglas C-47 Skytrain crashed just after takeoff from McChord AFB in Tacoma, Washington. It came down in a wooded area just south of the runway. Five men died and seven other men were injured. Killed were Army 1st Lt. Joseph R. Baxter, assigned to Madigan General Hospital at neighboring Ft. Lewis, who died six hours after the crash; Lt. Col. Robert E. Walker, pilot and commander of a detachment of the 15th Weather Squadron at McChord; the co-pilot, Capt. Peter Cunningham of Tacoma; Air Force TSgt. Donald G. Love, the flight engineer, also assigned to McChord and an Army man, who was not immediately identified. The injured Air Force personnel were MSgt. William B. Johnston of McChord; Lt. Col. Jack S. McKinley of Virginia; Sgt. William D. Wallace of West Virginia; TSgt. Billy D. Byrd of Tucson, Arizona; and Sgt. Charles L. Andrews of Florida. Injured Navy personnel were PO 2C Charles B. Nichols of California, and PO 3C. Darrell E. Calentine of California. Also injured was a retired Air Force MSgt. Granville Hicks of Missouri.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Known as “Pete” at Bremerton High School, he participated in Tennis, Golden Paw, National Honor, Boys Club Cabinet, Torch Honor (President). Stair-step siblings Jim, Susan and Sarah were all in high school with Peter during his senior year.
He was awarded the Bob Thorson Memorial scholarship presented by the school’s National Honor Society. He also won a scholarship for room expense at Washington State College and a $65 cash award from the United Commercial Travelers auxiliary.
Peter was nominated by U. S. Senator Warren G. Magnuson as an alternate to the Naval Academy.
In March 1956, his brother James was nominated by U. S. Representative Thomas M. Pelly as a candidate for the U. S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs.
Peter married Nahelia June Ingham in June 1959, in the main chapel of the Naval Academy. She was a former Miss Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
He received his silver jet pilot’s wings at Webb Air Force Base in Texas in August 1960.
In September 1963, he graduated as an Air Force pilot instructor at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas.
Shortly before his death, Peter graduated with a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
He had relocated his family to Tacoma and was due for assignment to Vietnam.
On his previous tour of duty in the Far East, he won the Distinguished Flying Cross and several Air Medals for reconnaissance flights over Vietnam. He flew F-101 reconnaissance missions from Okinawa for two years ending in April, 1967.
As a junior at the Naval Academy, Peter went on a visit with 75 other midshipmen to West Point for an exchange weekend (see photo.)
Born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, his parents were Edward, a farmer, and Veronica (Dunscomb) Cunningham. Later on, his father was a toolroom mechanic in Puget Sound naval shipyard’s central tool shop.
He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Letters and other mementos from his life were sold to a Vietnam memorabilia collector following his wife’s death.
Photographs
Notes
His gravestone has a rank of Captain but Memorial Hall has Major. He was a Captain in the 1969 Air Force Register; the 1970 edition is not available online.
Unable to find a citation for the Distinguished Flying Cross listed on his gravestone.
Peter is one of 32 members of the Class of 1959 on Virtual Memorial Hall.
