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As A-1 Company organized for the 1945–46 academic year, first sergeant Hank Bolz, de­cided that three company clerks were better than one, and Les Harris, Jack Forrest, and I became roommates. At that point, we three had only two things in common: we were tall and we could type. Otherwise, we were very different. Jack and I arrived right out of high school, eager and very green, whereas Les was a man of the world, cool and very aware that, for plebes, every silver lining had a cloud. He had spent two years in college and 26 months in the Army Engineers, most of that time in India and Burma. He was a suave, unflappa­ble gentleman of elegance and experience, and we spent the next year learning from him.</p>
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<em>Leslie Earl Harris, Jr.</em> was born to Leslie E. and Helen J. Harris in Gary, IN, but soon moved to Chattanooga, TN. He graduated from Baylor High School, spent the 1941–42 school year at the University of Chattanooga, the next year at Purdue University, where he was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity, and then the Army. He received an appointment to the Academy from Representative Estes Kefauver of the Third Congressional District of Tennessee and was immediately brought back from the Far East to attend a preparatory school at Cornell University for three months before entering West Point.</p>
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His quiet, mature competence and social skills were immediately evident to all of us A-1 plebes, and we elected him our represen­tative to the Ring Committee and the Hop Committee. He was reelected to the latter job for the next three years. For Les, cadet life was merely a prelude to a career as an Air Force pilot, and he let neither cadet life nor academ­ics bother him very much.</p>
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Les selected the Air Force and immedi­ately after graduation went to Goodfellow Air Force Base for primary training. The San Angelo Country Club offered tempo­rary memberships to new second lieutenants, and it was here that Les met May Hemphill. After he finished his flight training, they were married on 14 Aug 1950. They had a son, William P. “Scooter” Harris.</p>
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Les spent most of his flying career in Strategic Air Command, starting out in B-50s. In 1951, he was involved in a crash landing. On a flight from England, the air­craft lost an engine and had to divert to the Azores. To avoid dropping into the ocean, the crew had to jettison all cargo on the aircraft, including Christmas gifts for their families and lots of good Scotch. Later, Les flew B-47s out of Chennault AFB and Barksdale AFB in Louisiana.</p>
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In 1963, he attended the Air Command and Staff College and then was assigned to the Department of the Air Force in Washington, DC. There, his diplomatic and political skills were well utilized in establishing policies for allowing foreign and domestic civil aircraft to use Air Force bases. On his own time, he earned his master’s degree in business from George Washington University and was very active as a lay reader at St. Dunston’s Episcopal Church in Falls Church, VA.</p>
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In May 1967, he went to Pleiku, Viet Nam, as the operations officer for Flight “B,” 4th Air Commando Squadron, which flew AC-47 Dragonships. These C-47 cargo aircraft were converted to fire multiple machine guns side­ways while the pilot slowly circled the target area, usually at night and at very low altitudes. Les flew a number of these missions and de­scribed one: “The enemy was firing at our flares, and from this we noted their muzzle blast and fired back at those flashes.” On this particular mission they fired 22,000 rounds. He received the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Silver Star for his support of Vietnamese troops and was made an honorary member of the 4th Infantry Division for his frequent support of their troops. Between missions, he became quite close to the chaplain at Pleiku and frequently drove around with him to visit and give communion to troops in outlying encampments.</p>
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In March 1968, May joined Les in Hong Kong for a delightful three weeks of vacation. Shortly thereafter, he was notified that his next assignment would be to the faculty of the Army Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth, KS, and he and May were looking forward to the job.</p>
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Early in the morning of 5 May 1968, just two weeks before his tour was up, his crew observed hostile rockets being launched while en route to an outpost west of Pleiku. As he engaged the hostile positions, his aircraft was subjected to intense ground fire. With com­plete disregard for his own safety, he tried to quell the hostile attack. Unfortunately, his plane was hit and crashed, killing all aboard. He received the Silver Star (posthumous) and Distinguished Flying Cross for this action. Harris Hall, a dormitory at Goodfellow AFB, was named in his honor in 1985.</p>
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When I asked Scooter how he remembered his dad, he answered, “there are many things that I can refer to, but the most outstanding thing is Dad’s extreme dedication to the Air Force and the job that he was sent to do. We conversed on tape a couple of times while he was in Nam, and he always felt that the mis­sion the military was on was a sound one, and he was happy to do the job that he was sent to do. He was so dedicated to his country and his family. What more can one say.”</p>
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Well done, Les.</p>
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<em>Mo Mathews and May Harris</em></p>