CAPT Pat Callahan, USN (Ret)

From RADM Wes Jordan, USN (Ret)

  Pat Callahan lost his long fight with cancer after one of the most courageous fights I have ever seen. Pat’s morning ritual was to put his bulldog in the car and go to a local park to read the papers and take a walk. A passerby saw Pat collapse as he was putting the dog back into the car and called 911. The police and the rescue squad responded from not a half mile away but “could not bring him back.” Maureen was at home alone and was notified on the phone by the police.

  Nobody but someone as tough as Pat could have fought as hard for two years against such long odds, and never without the love and unfailing support of Maureen. But the vicious form of cancer was taking an incredible toll on both of them. Extreme forms of radiation, chemo and experimental drugs were ineffective. I talked to Pat the night before he died. He was in extreme pain and I believe that as best as anybody can be, he was ready. Pat and Maureen were living on a lake and were not using hospice support. So in some ways, this ending was a blessing.

Maureen is at home with the children. Pat is in a nearby funeral home. Pat will be buried in Arlington sometime in August/September time frame due to backlog. Details of the final funeral and any visitation plans to follow. Maureen was incredibly calm and strong and responded as we who had watched her take care of the “Big Guy” all these years would only have expected. The mourning begins.

I can’t find the words to express the sadness and sense of loss I feel in filing this report. There Was None Finer.

Wes Jordan

Contact Executive Director, SNA for contact information for family.