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<em>Harry James Fleeger</em> was born in Parker, South Dakota on 27 June 1908, second son of South Dakota Superior Court Judge Louis L. Fleeger and Mrs. Cliffie E. Fleeger.</p>
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He attended Parker High School for four years and graduated as valedictorian of his class in 1926. He attended Iowa State Teacher’s College for one year before entering West Point on 1 July 1927.</p>
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Harry fitted well into life at West Point from the beginning. From lowly plebe to first class buck the trials and tribulations of cadet life did little to disturb his quietly cheerful disposition. His dedication to the military profession, so evident in his subsequent service, was obvious early at the Academy as he took the discipline and structured life in stride. Nor did he have any trouble with academics, ranking well into the upper third of the class on graduation 11 June 1931.</p>
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Though generally quiet and serious he was uniformly cheerful and most definitely had his lighter side, as those intimates who remember the incident on the ledge outside the ballroom windows of the Hotel Astor on yearling Christmas leave will attest.</p>
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The high regard in which Harry was held by his classmates is best illustrated by his selection as a member of the Honor Committee first class year.</p>
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On graduation Harry was assigned to the 14th Cavalry at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, but before reporting to his station he was married to his childhood sweetheart, Susan Louise Morgan, to whom he had written a daily letter (special delivery on weekends) for four long years.</p>
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While at Fort Des Moines Harry served as a cavalry platoon and troop commander and spent six months with the CCC in northern Iowa and Minnesota. His first son, James Elliot (USMA ‘55), was born at Des Moines.</p>
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In 1935 Harry attended the Troop Officers Course at the Cavalry School, Fort Riley, Kansas where he once more distinguished himself as a serious student, a dedicated soldier, an accomplished horseman and a friend to be depended upon in all seasons.</p>
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Upon graduation Harry was assigned to the 13th Cavalry at Fort Knox, Kentucky where he participated in early experimentation and development of the mechanized cavalry formations which later became the Armored Cavalry regiments of today. While at Fort Knox the Fleeger family was augmented by the birth of a second son, Louis Lincoln Fleeger II.</p>
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Harry returned to Riley in June 1937 to attend the Advanced Equitation Course where he further refined already notable equestrian skills. Then to Fort Benning in June 1938 as a student in the Infantry School Regular Class.</p>
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In September 1939 Harry and his family sailed for the Philippines where he joined his new regiment, the famous 26th Cavalry, Philippine Scouts, at Fort Stotsenberg. In the ensuing two years Harry’s skill and experience contributed greatly to the hard training which was to make the 26th so successful in battle. He still found time, at least in the first year, for horse shows, polo, and gymnastics.</p>
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During this period Harry received his temporary promotion to captain and commanded Troop E until he became regimental adjutant in November 1941, just prior to outbreak of hostilities. Louise and the two boys returned to the US in May 1941 as part of the general evacuation of all dependents from the Philippines.</p>
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Four days after Pearl Harbor Day, 8 December in the Philippines, Harry was promoted to major, surely one of the first battlefield promotions in WWII. He continued to serve as adjutant during his regiment’s introduction to fire at Damortis on Lingayen Gulf and the ensuing long delaying action covering the withdrawal of Wainwright’s North Luzon Force into Bataan. In late January the regimental reorganization necessitated by heavy casualties and the promotion and reassignment of the regimental CO landed Harry in command of what was left of the 1st Squadron.</p>
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Harry was on the thin defensive line on the south bank of the Alongan River the night of 8 April 1942 when the tattered and exhausted remnants of the 26th Cavalry (PS) stubbornly defended that position in the last organized resistance offered by Filipino or American troops to the final and overwhelming Japanese drive which ended in the surrender of Bataan on 9 April.</p>
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Harry was taken prisoner with the remains of his regiment as a part of the general surrender of American and Philippine forces ordered by General King. He survived the Death March to POW camps in central Luzon and the ensuing two and a half years of imprisonment, of which the less said the better. When the Japanese began evacuating American officer POW’s from the Philippines in October 1944, to avoid recapture by advancing American forces, Harry was shipped out on one of the two unmarked prison ships sunk by US Naval units. There were no survivors from his ship.</p>
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Harry Fleeger’s life was a personification of the ideals of West Point. He lived every day in strict adherence to the principles of Duty, Honor, Country because he believed in them so fervently. In the end he gave his life for them.</p>
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<em>A classmate</em></p>