James Warren Harrison

West Point, 1981

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Ed Healy on May 16, 2007:

As a classmate and company mate, I had the privilege to represent Jim's West Point friends and delivered this eulogy at his Memorial service at Fort Leavenworth on May 14, 2007. Jimmy was truly a friend to many. COLONEL JAMES W. HARRISON It is with a very heavy heart that I stand before you today to share a few memories from West Point to help celebrate the wonderful life of a man that many of us knew endearingly as ?Harry?. Let me take you back to July 6, 1977 when 1492 young men and women left cities and suburbs, farms and beaches, Army posts and Air Force bases across our great nation to travel to the banks of the Hudson River to form the West Point Class of 1981. James W. Harrison, or Harry as he came to be known at West Point, will always be a member of that class. As members of Cadet Basic training companies, we all struggled to make it through that first summer in the hills and training areas at the United States Military Academy. But more than 1300 new cadets survived the trials and tribulations of ?Beast Barracks?, the first summer at West Point, and came together to select a class motto of ?Strength as One?, a motto that speaks of unity, teamwork, family and leadership. As the summer ended, the cadets of company H-2 met the young man from Oscoda, Michigan who embodied the characteristics of that motto. Jimmy?s calm and caring leadership style became evident very early during our plebe year. During that time, we were graded and pitted against each other in every way imaginable; academics, physical fitness and leadership ability. Everything was an individual competition. At the same time, we were pushed to work cooperatively as team players as much as possible. The two sides of this dichotomy were difficult for many young college freshmen to grasp, but not for Jim. Individually, he excelled in all areas while still pushing his classmates to reach their potential. He worked tirelessly on own his classroom work, but was always willing to stop what he was doing to help the Bear understand that when it comes to Calculus, one plus one may not always equal two. He was an excellent soccer player and with his unstoppable energy, he could have left his teammates behind on the field. But instead, I can still picture Jim shouting instructions in the heat of the competition to teach ?Tank? the art of teamwork, or to help Burk learn the fine points of heading the soccer ball. To use a phrase that Jim used often in our email exchanges, ?back in the day? that was plebe year, West Point could be a very lonely place. It was tough for us all. Without email, cell phones or personal telephones, we had very little contact with our family and friends in the outside world. Our classmates became our family and friends. Ours was only the 2nd class at West Point with women and our female classmates faced very tough challenges. But Jim was a friend to all. He made the small gestures that people never forget. As a gesture of friendship on Valentine?s Day during our plebe year, he gave handmade cards to two of our female classmates who lived nearby simply to brighten their day. What made the gesture even more moving was that by this time, we all knew that Jim was completely committed to his beloved, Penni. Most classes at West Point are scrambled, that is, cadets are moved among companies once or twice during their four years. Our class was one of the few which we stayed in the same company for all four years. As those four years passed, the bonds between the members of Company H-2?s Class of 1981 grew especially strong. Other cadet companies had nicknames like ?Inferno?, but we were the Happy Company and we worked hard to live up to that reputation. We gave each other nicknames as terms of endearment. There was Bags, Shubes, Harv, the Bear, and many others. And Jimmy forever became known to us as ?Harry?. As the years moved forward, we were joined by our company mates from the Class of 1982 in our pursuit of happiness and friendship. Together, we had fun whenever we could and Harry was in the middle of us all. We enjoyed good food, good beer and great camaraderie at the football tailgate parties thrown almost every week in the fall by the Shubas and the Wilmers, adopted parents to us all. We played Frisbee on the Plain and caught the sun?s rays on Pebble Beach or down by the Hudson River. We reveled at Army-Navy football games, back when Army actually won once in a while. And we got to know Penni, the love of Jim?s life, during her many visits to West Point. When he was named company commander during our senior year, Jim did indeed become our leader. Leading a group of peers is very difficult indeed, but Jim led as a friend. When he could, Jimmy tried to keep us on an even keel but at times that was just not possible. The company H-2 tactical officer was Major Durham, a great Air Force officer who had earned the nickname, ?Blue Max.? During the week of the Army-Air Force football game, Jimmy played right along with the rest of us when we painted a chicken blue and let the chicken loose in Major Durham?s office. Shubes, the best man at Jim and Penni?s wedding, wrote this citation that appears next to Jimmy?s picture in the 1981 United States Military Academy yearbook, ?By the end of Plebe year, we all knew that Jimmy was destined to be the leader of the Happy Company. While the job of Company Commander was demanding, Jimmy always found time for his friends. A fierce competitor on the athletic field, James shone on H-2's intramural teams. Yet, the attribute we will remember most about Jimmy was that he cared about each one of us.? The friendships we developed at West Point endured over the years as we all moved about the country and around the world. At first we stayed in touch with Christmas cards and phone calls. We then reconnected over the years with the help of email and cell phones. Our families got to know each other during reunions and in cross country trips. Through it all, Jimmy continued to be one of the most caring leaders I have ever known. The morning after the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech, I awoke to find an email sent from Jim in Afghanistan. In spite of the rigors of his work there, Jim was asking about my oldest son, a 2007 Virginia Tech grad. The Jimmy we remember is helping his classmates with their homework late at night under the dim lights in Central Barracks; he is running with boundless energy down a bright green soccer field with a wonderful splash of autumn leaves in the background; he is sitting on the floor caring for his sick roommate at 3 a.m.; he is caked with mud crawling out of a rugby scrum; he is loudly cheering on the Army football, and baseball and hockey teams; he is sharing food, beer and laughs on a cool autumn evening with 20 great friends at a tailgate party after a football game; he is at the front of Company H-2 on a beautiful Saturday morning leading us in parade; he is shaking hands with President Reagan at graduation on May 27, 1981; and a few days later, he is oh so proudly, smiling broadly while walking down the aisle and out the door at that Chapel in Charlottesville, Virginia arm and arm with Penni, his beautiful bride and the love of his life. Penni, Braden, Ross, Josh, Mr. and Mrs, Harrison: Your husband, father, son was a caring leader and a great friend to many. His friends are all over the world and have moved on to many other professions and pursuits. Jimmy?s friends are all your friends. Please call on us whenever you need us, for whatever you need. On behalf of his friends, his classmates from 1981 and his company mates from H-2, I would like to end with a phrase from the West Point alma mater that I have modified just a bit: Jimmy, Now that your work is done Your course on earth is run To you, we all say ?Well Done? Be thou at Peace.

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