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Born and raised in New Mexico, <em>Thomas Daniel Harrison</em> had the quietly confident, lean look of a handsome cowboy of the open range when he joined his classmates on a hot day at West Point on 1 July 1939. With three years prior training at the New Mexico Military Institute, he readily demonstrated to his colleagues the soldierly qualities which were to be his trademark throughout his life. With a ready smile and the open friendliness of a westerner, Tom was liked in the Corps, affectionately called “T.D." by those closest to him. The aggressive courage which would serve him well throughout his military career was very evident in his skill as a boxer for all four years at the Academy. His love of and deep faith in God, which would be the source of his strength in meeting the tough situations he would face later, were demonstrated in his devoted service as a Sunday school teacher and acolyte in the Cadet Chapel.</p>
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Tom’s initial aspirations were for the Cavalry, but these changed for the Engineer Corps as his academic excellence pushed him to the top of his class. However, soon after Pearl Harbor, Tom and his classmates were offered an opportunity to undertake flight training on a volunteer basis prior to graduation. He decided the Army Air Corps was for him and successfully gained his pilot wings on 13 December 1942. Upon graduating 29th in his class on 19 January 1943, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the US Army Air Corps. After intensive training in a P-47 fighter at Selma, Alabama and Drew Airfield in Florida, Tom served overseas in the Twentieth and Fourteenth Air Forces in India and China during 1944 and 1945. While on a strafing mission in China his aircraft was crippled by enemy ground fire, and he was forced to land on a river sandbar with a blown engine. He not only was wounded but had the harrowing experience of his parachute harness being rendered unusable by the enemy fire. Inhabitants of a nearby Chinese village rescued and doctored him. When he was better, he returned to his squadron and subsequently India for recovery from his wounds.</p>
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Soon after the war, in July 1946, he married the lovely Doris Johnson of Clovis, New Mexico, who had served her country as a WAVE. Their first station was at West Point where Tom, after post graduate study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, served as an instructor in the Department of Mechanics. In 1949, accompanied by their baby daughter Barbara, they next went to Williams Air Force Base in Chandler, Arizona. There Tom’s soldierly qualities came to the fore again as he was assigned as commandant of cadets for the training of aviation cadets.</p>
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In November 1950, just after the outbreak of the Korean War, Tom’s leadership abilities led to his assignment as squadron commander, 16th Fighter Squadron, based in Seoul, Korea. As the New Mexico Military Institute prepared Tom for West Point, the latter helped prepare Tom for the hardships he would endure as a prisoner of war. After 75 missions during which he fearlessly led his squadron into air battles and attacks against ground targets, Tom was shot down in his F-80 jet fighter near the Yalu River by a MIG 15. This time he was able to bail out, but his left leg struck something on the aircraft nearly cutting it off. After his parachute landing he was captured by North Korean soldiers who carried him to an ill-equipped Red Chinese first aid station where half-trained medics amputated his left leg. In the words of a fellow prisoner, “This did not staunch his indomitable spirit —he had guts and courage and was always a gentleman.”</p>
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In November 1951, during a forced winter march of 140 miles from Kangdong to Ping-chong-Ni, clad only in light clothing, Tom hobbled along on crude crutches. He could have ridden, but surrendered his place on the one small ox-cart provided for wounded prisoners to other prisoners he considered in worse condition. He never forgot his duty as a senior POW officer despite a deteriorating physical condition, the leg amputation and six other primitive operations, inhumanly brutal beatings, long periods of sadistic torture and ruthlessly incessant interrogations. Tom once remarked that the strict disciplinary training at the Academy helped provide the strength and courage to endure. The North Koreans and Chinese Communists must have hated Lieutenant Colonel Harrison because of his aggressive belligerence towards their demands, but must have respected him for his strong principles of military leadership. His strength helped many of his fellow prisoners to stay alive, and some to escape. When a group of prisoners decided to escape, Tom refused to go along knowing that his poor physical condition would prevent his keeping up with his more mobile companions. The escape was successful, but the North Koreans blamed Tom and vented their wrath with beatings. In April 1953, the communists agreed to repatriate all sick and wounded prisoners. Undoubtedly qualified, Tom was instead put into solitary confinement for the remainder of the war. He was finally released on 6 August 1953, after 27 months of imprisonment. For his courageous service as a POW he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, and after recuperating at Brooks Army Hospital, Fort Sam Houston, Texas was medically retired in the rank of lieutenant colonel.</p>
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Launching into a 30-year tenure at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, he was able to once again serve the country he deeply loved. He played an important role in the Apollo moon missions, helping to invent the solar powered panels which operated the data collecting equipment on the moon. Tom then ventured into the Voyager Project, a probe which continues to relay information from outside the solar system. His last years were spent in research and development of solar energy.</p>
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Tom’s convictions to serve his God and fellowman grew stronger as an elder of Saint Andrew Presbyterian Church, president of Martineztown House of Neighborly Service and president of a Kiwanis Chapter.</p>
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Although Tom’s military career was filled with experiences that heroes are made of, he never considered himself a “hero.” Tom simply served his country and his Lord the only way he knew, with strong moral convictions. Even in the midst of terminal illness, Tom accepted death as a hope filled friend rather than with the terror many experience. Tom was a man to love and to respect for his wisdom, grace and power. He was always willing to step out from the crowd to deal with the unexpected, moving from one calling to the next, working at being broadened by any hardship he encountered.</p>
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His beloved survivors include Doris, his wife of 39 years, of Albuquerque, New Mexico; two daughters, Barbara and her husband Dr. Theodore Scharf of Albuquerque; First Lieutenant Joyce MeCallister, USMC, and her husband First Lieutenant Frank McCallister, USMC, of Jacksonville, North Carolina; two sons, Thomas Jr. and his wife Terri of Tucson, Arizona and Dale of Las Lunas, New Mexico; four grandchildren and two brothers, William and his wife Alice of Cleveland, Ohio and Ray of Albuquerque.</p>
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<em>—A daughter </em>and<em> classmates</em></p>
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