John L. Harrison Jr., 96, decorated Tuskegee Airman
John L. Harrison Jr., 96, of Philadelphia, a World War II veteran and Tuskegee Airman who went on to fly Air Force planes for more than two decades, died Wednesday, March 22, of old age at Penn Hospice at Rittenhouse.
Born in Kansas and reared in Omaha, Neb., Mr. Harrison had an early infatuation with airplanes. "Johnny Boy, you can do anything anyone else does, but you have to prepare yourself," his parents told him.
He graduated from Omaha University, and did further study at the University of Southern California and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
After reading about the first class of African American pilots to train for combat during World War II, Mr. Harrison signed up in February 1943 to join Class 43-K, composed entirely of black recruits. He served with the Army Air Corps, the predecessor of the Air Force, until 1946.
The fliers encountered discrimination "based on the color of our skin," he said in a September 2009 oral history, but the harsh treatment by white officers only heightened the men's sense of camaraderie. They painted the tails of their planes red, becoming the famed Red Tails, and distinguished themselves in combat by fending off enemy aircraft that threatened Allied bombers.
"We were Americans, we were young, and we wanted to defend our country, just like everyone else," he said in the history, recorded at a Tuskegee Airmen's air show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3i3IBOgasE
Once Mr. Harrison completed basic training, he was promoted to second lieutenant, and advanced to specialized training on the B-25 Mitchell bomber and assigned to the 477th Medium Bombardment Group as a fighter pilot.
He saw combat in Italy during World War II, and was among the Tuskegee Airmen who in 2007 were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President George W. Bush and Congress.
After the war, he loved flying so much he stayed in the Air Force. He was the first African American pilot and flight commander to regularly fly passengers and cargo across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for the U.S. Military Air Transport Service. He crossed the Pacific 50 times, and the Atlantic 30 times, his resume indicates.
In the early 1950s, Mr. Harrison was stationed in Hawaii, from which he flew to Japan, the Philippines, Wake Island, Hong Kong, and Saudi Arabia. In the mid-1950s, he flew to the Arctic, Greenland, and Iceland. He also piloted C-118 Liftmaster Transports to Scotland, Paris, Madrid, Cairo, and Saudi Arabia.
In June 1963, Mr. Harrison retired from the Air Force with the rank of major. He was given the Air Force Longevity Service Award with four oak leaf clusters, according to his military record.
During five years in East Africa as a foreign service reserve officer with the Peace Corps in the late 1960s, he flew his own plane and enjoyed taking passengers for rides over herds of indigenous animals.
Once back in Philadelphia, Mr. Harrison held various administrative posts, one as a deputy secretary of Pennsylvania under Gov. Dick Thornburgh, and another in the 1970s as a Girard Bank employee on loan to the National Alliance of Business. Before retiring later, he was a director of affirmative action for the Boeing Aircraft Co. in Ridley Park.
He was a past member of the International Rotary and the Philadelphia Urban League, and was a vice president of the American Helicopter Society. He enjoyed backpacking on the Appalachian Trail and traveling by motor home throughout the United States and Canada.
For the last 50 years, Mr. Harrison made his home in Society Hill. He married Lula Mae Powell and had four children. They divorced, and she died in the late 1980s. He was married a second time to Genie Nascimento. She died, also in the late 1980s.
He is survived by children Joan, John, Richard, and Darryl; nine grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and a nephew.
A viewing from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, March 30, and again from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Friday, March 31, at the Chapel of the Four Chaplains, 1201 Constitution Ave., Navy Yard Building 649, Philadelphia, will be followed by an 11:30 a.m. Funeral Mass on Friday, also at the chapel. Inurnment will be later at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
Memorial donations may be made to the Wounded Warrior Project, via https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/donate.