MCCONNELL DELMER M

CPT Delmer "Mac" M. McConnell was a VHPA member who died after his tour in Vietnam on 07/23/2011 at the age of 85.3 from Heart failure
Mineral Wells, TX
Flight Class 58-8QC
Date of Birth 04/13/1926
Served in the U.S. Army
Served in Vietnam with A/82 AVN in 65-66
Call sign in Vietnam COWBOY
This information was provided by Nancy McConnell (wife), Pat Richardson

More detail on this person: Delmer Mason (Mac) McConnell, 85, died July 23, 2011, at home with family.

Service is 10 a.m. Saturday, July 30, in the Baum-Carlock-Bumgardner Chapel with Rev. Charles Mays officiating. Visitation is 6-8 p.m. Friday at Baum-Carlock-Bumgardner Funeral Home. The coffin will be draped with a flag flown during Captain Megan McConnell's last air assault mission in Afghanistan and given to her grandfather for his 85th birthday. Pallbearers are Jud Lively, Jack Lowey, Rodney Butler, John Rollins, Chuck Hogan and Mike McConnell. Burial with military honors will follow in Woodland Park Cemetery.

Mac was born April 13, 1926, in Cherokee, Okla., to Mason Orville and Zola Pauline (Potter) McConnell. He was a proud three-war veteran. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1943 at the age of 17 and served in the South Pacific Theater during World War II. In September 1950 he joined the Oklahoma National Guard and as a member of "B" Battery, 189th Field Artillery, 45th Infantry Division (Oklahoma National Guard), deployed to Korea in December 1951.

It was during the Korean War that he had one of his proudest moments in the Army. In February 1952 Mac received a battlefield commission and promotion to the rank of second lieutenant in the field artillery. Following his return to the U.S., he was selected for pilot training, earning his wings in 1954. He later transitioned to helicopters and earned his rotary wing rating in 1958.

In 1965 he deployed to Vietnam as an Army helicopter pilot commanding a helicopter maintenance company. Completing that combat tour, he was transferred to Fort Wolters, Texas, for duty as a helicopter instructor pilot. On Aug. 31, 1967, Mac transferred to the retired list with more than 20 years of active military service. After his retirement he remained in the aviation business as an instructor for Southern Airways at Fort Wolters, in the oil patch off the coast of Louisiana, in the Quebec province of Canada and in California before he finally retired for good. Mac moved one more time to Mineral Wells in 1994, where he lived until his death. He was a member of the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, DAV, National Order of Battlefield Commission and the Fort Wolters Chapter Vietnam Helicopter Pilots.

Survivors include his wife, Nancy (Sanders) McConnell; son, Mike McConnell and wife, Doris, of Mineral Wells; daughters, Cinda Parenti and husband, Nicky, of Mineral Wells, Jana South and husband, Danny, of Amarillo, Texas; grandson, Nicolaus Parenti, of Mineral Wells; granddaughters, Lindsay Parenti, of Mineral Wells, Captain Megan McConnell, USA of Fort Campbell, Ky., Morgan McConnell, of Mineral Wells, and Makayla South, of Amarillo; great-grandson, Christian Shea, of Mineral Wells; and sister, Dorlene Hutson, of Huntsville, Ala.

He was preceded in death by his parents; brother, Darrell; and son, Mason Martin McConnell.

Condolences may be left at www.bcbfuneralhome.com

Baum-Carlock-Bumgardner Funeral Home

From: mineralwellsindex.com and Nancy McConnell

This information was last updated 05/18/2016

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Date posted on this site: 03/10/2024


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