http://www.upi.com/…

Published: July 29, 2008 at 4:22 PM

DALLAS, July 29 (UPI) — The last Dallas police officer who was on duty the day that U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated has turned in his badge and retired.

Police Sgt. Graham Pierce, a rookie who had recently graduated from the police academy on Nov. 22, 1963, was asleep when Kennedy was shot early in the afternoon. He reported for duty at 11 p.m. and spent hours on the street in South Dallas, where shocked and saddened residents were out in the streets.

The department held a retirement ceremony Monday, The Dallas Morning News reported. Pierce has been on leave for several weeks to use up his vacation time, although he came back for one day when the department needed supervisors.

“Forty-five years has been a long time,” Pierce, 67, told his colleagues. “But it went by awful fast. I still remember being a rookie on the street, just out of the academy. I just can’t remember anything in between.”

Pierce was nicknamed Greyhound because he caught a suspect the first time he was involved in a foot pursuit, the Morning News said.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.