Major John Schofield Lally, Jr., U. S. Army Retired, passed away on Tuesday, 19 May 2009, at a Florence hospital. He was 87. John was born and reared in Louisville, KY, where he attended the public and parochial schools and the University of Louisville. He enlisted in the U. S. Army on 7 December 1942 and served under the command of General George S. Patton in Europe during World War II with the 14th Armored Division Recon. During that time he distinguished himself by capturing 175 German soldiers and was recommended for a battlefield commission as a Second Lieutenant. He later would transfer to the Army Counter Intelligence Corp and for the next 43 years devoted his entire career to the Intelligence field. His military assignments included the 526th CIC Detachment in Okinawa, Japan; the 116th in Washington, D.C. with time out for the Army Language School in Monterey, CA, where he mastered the Japanese language (his final written exam included 1500 questions of which he missed only two and recorded the highest grades previously recorded for a student of Japanese); the 470th in Panama; Advanced Officer's Course in Baltimore, MD.; 902nd in Washington, D.C.; Commanding Officer of the CIC unit in the Republic of South Korea; then back to Washington, D.C. for his last assignment before retiring with 20 years service. Special assignments included coding President Johnson's messages to Moscow and briefing two separate Army Chiefs of Staff on intelligence matters. One day after he retired from the Army, John reported to work at the Central Intelligence Agency. Assignments with The Defense Communications Agency and The Naval Sea Systems Command followed and after 26 years as a civilian employee with the Department of Defense he retired again. At the time of his retirement he headed a Navy security inspection team for conventional and nuclear weapons which involved frequent worldwide travels. John was an accomplished artist and a marathon swimmer. He volunteered one day each week at Fairfax Hospital in Northern Virginia. John has a BA in History and Math which he earned at night while in the service. He lived in Florence with his wife, Rubye Morris Lally. He is also survived by a sister Cletus Fields of Somerset, N.J. and a son John Cho Lally of Burke, VA. A memorial service will be held at 2:00PM on May 30, 2009 at St. Anthony Catholic Church, 2536 Hoffmeyer Rd., Florence, S.C. Burial with full military honors will be at 11:00AM August 17, 2009 at Arlington National Cemetery. Memorials may be made to Alzheimer's Association, P. O. Box 7044, Columbia, SC 29202.