Philip J. Conley, Jr. ’45 is a retired Air Force Major General who remembers his first visit to La Salle Academy as being a long one in terms of time and distance.

“I was still a kid in junior high school from West Warwick -- I knew about La Salle but had never been to the school,” he said in a phone interview from his home in Santa Barbara, CA.  “I took the bus into Providence but had no idea that there was a trolley that went up Smith Street so I walked all the way, went up to the Brothers’ House, knocked on the door and told the Brother who answered the door that I wanted to go to school at La Salle.  I guess my boldness paid off because I got in.”

"I recall my mother telling me after a band concert that the band and I had played very well. I then had to confess to her that I had forgotten to put the reed into my clarinet before the event. I was just going through the motions on stage...my fingers moving and blowing into the clarinet but there was no sound coming out. That is probably why the rest of the band sounded so good that night!"

"I remember the great football teams we had in that era including the one that went to the national championship game in New Orleans the year after I graduated. Jack Cronin was the coach and my history teacher. He was a great role model to all of us. I was on the track team --my event was the javelin-- I wasn't much better at that than playing the clarinet. We did have some great athletes on the team however, including Jim Murphy, Bill Fleming (who both won scholarships to Notre Dame) and Father Ed McGovern. We won state championships with Dan O"Grady as our coach and Brother Mike as our monitor...both also great role models. I attribute the face that I never smoked to Dan O'Grady.

“I was a good friend of Danny Reardon who was an all-state fullback.  We met at Camp Yawgoog as kids and were in the same homeroom at La Salle.   Danny was born in Ireland and was a year or two older than the others kids in his grade.  As a result, he was drafted into the service during the war during his junior year,” said Phil.  “As I recall, he died when the B-24 on which he was a crewman ran out of fuel due to flak putting holes in their fuel tank. They went down in the North Sea following a bombing raid near Berlin.  Remarkably, on that same plane was another former La Salle student Marshall D’Ambrosio of the class of 1943.  I also remember Danny’s brother Billy who was a year or two behind him.  I think that Billy lives on the Cape.”

Other good friends from La Salle that Phil recalled are Joe McNally, Bob Smith, Art Sheridan and Bob Healy.  "Bob and I have stayed in touch over the years and he has kept me up to date about La Salle,” he said.

Phil, who was recently inducted into the Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame, went to Providence College for one year after graduating from La Salle and then entered the United States Naval Academy with an appointment from then Rhode Island Congressman John E. Fogarty who was also a La Salle graduate, Class of 1930.

“Upon graduation from Annapolis, I wanted to become a Navy pilot,’ said Phil. “I and few other fresh grads planned to go to Pensacola to earn our wings.  However, those plans were scotched due to the fact that the Navy had an over supply of pilots with all the veterans coming back from the war in the Pacific. However, in 1948 the Army Air Force became the independent U.S. Air Force and the Army did not like the fact that only West point grads were going into the new U.S. Air Force. This led to an agreement that beginning with my class, 25 percent of West Point and Annapolis grads could volunteer to be commissioned in the Air Force until the Air Force Academy was up and running. When the Air Force announced that any Naval Academy graduate who was qualified to fly in the Navy could go immediately into flight training, I volunteered. By 1962 over 2100 midshipmen had become Air Force officers.”

Following flight training he flew 100 combat missions and served as a forward air controller with the 1st British Commonwealth Division during the Korean War. After receiving a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1956, Phil was assigned to the Air force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB in California. This was the first of three assignments totaling 12 years at Edwards and flight test became central to his future Air Force career. He served initially as a plot and flight test engineer, later becoming the chief of bomber flight test engineering. After completing his second tour in
Vietnam in 1971, he was again assigned to Edwards as Center Vice Commander and Inspector General. In 1978 Phil assumed command of the Center-a post he held for the next 4 1/2 years.

Among the test programs he directed and flew were the B-1, F-16, F-15, and A-10 - all of which remain primary combat aircraft at the present time. Phil was the commander for the first shuttle landing on the Edwards dry lake bed and on the Fourth of July, 1982 he hosted President Ronald Reagan who had visited Edwards to view the first shuttle landing on a conventional runway. This landing completed the shuttle test program and it was declared operational.

General Conley is a command pilot with more than 4,200 hours of flight time in 86 different aircraft types/models.  He retired from active duty October 1, 1983 and became associated with Burdeshaw Associates, Ltd, a Bethesda, MD consulting firm.  In that capacity he served as a consultant to many major U.S. corporations including General Electric, Boeing, John Deere, Kodak, Honeywell and ITT as well as the Department of Defense.  

Phil and his wife Shirley married 51 years ago and have four children:  Dr. Sharon Conley, PhD, Anne Pellegrini, James Conley and Colonel Kathleen Conley USAF (Ret.) who in 1980 was the first female graduate of the Air Force Academy.

Phil and Shirley retired to Santa Barbara in 1986 where he has served on boards of the Flight Test Historical Society, The Pierre Claeyssens Veterans Museum and Library (a WWII museum) and the California Branch of the American Irish Historical Society.

“Looking back on my life and whatever I may have accomplished, it all began with and the foundation was put in place at La Salle,” concluded the retired general.  “And, I always look forward to coming back.  Tell Brother Kevin I am looking forward to our 65^th reunion next year.”