US AIRBORNE

Many thanks to John Cartan for agreeing to answer my many questions about his uncle, and for his kindness and availability!

He joined the regiment a few months before the end of the war.
He radiated a joy for life and was very popular with the ladies.
He had a distinguished career as a judge and lawyer. He defended clients that no one else wanted.
He was also a great storyteller.

Harold Harrison was born in Helena, Montana, on July 26, 1922. His parents owned a ranch. Harold had a sister and grew up on the family ranch. He worked at Fort Harrison in Montana near Helena during the summer of '42, building facilities for the 1st Special Service Force.

“They came to train for jumps. I saw them jump. I thought that eventually, I wanted to be in the paratroopers.”

Thus, in September 1942, along with a group of friends, he volunteered to join the army.

“We were told to go back to school for a few weeks to get the necessary education. We expected to be called up every day! But in the end, we weren't called until March. We left for Helena on March 14.”

He took the train at Garrison bound for Fort Lewis.

“There, they didn’t have uniforms for us. We wore the same clothes for more than two weeks. They got pretty smelly!” Then, he was sent to Camp Walters, in Texas. Camp Walters was an old goat ranch. There were paratroopers there.

“They explained that there was a special training program. The old Colonel told us we would serve our country better by going there than joining the paratroopers. Since I was undecided, the Colonel made the decision to send me there.”

Harold Harrison was sent to Chicago, to the Illinois Institute of Technology. He arrived in Chicago during the summer. There, in addition to military training, he received technology courses. Life there was very pleasant: movies, dance halls, sports. But he didn't enjoy the studies.

“I did well with what I knew, but I struggled with mathematics. We had a teacher of German origin who had a habit of saying when he entered the class: ‘Harrison, if you don’t buckle down and study, I’ll kick you out!’ In the end, they really did kick me out! I was devastated!”

He was sent to Camp McCoy in Wisconsin. Upon arrival, he participated in maneuvers in Michigan's peninsula. He served as a machine gun loader, likely for a .30 caliber.

“The nights were very cold. We had been given good clothing to cope with the cold. On the first night, I took off my shoes. The next day, they were completely frozen! I never took them off again.”

Afterward, Harold Harrison was sent to Fort Benning for paratrooper training. He made five jumps.

“One day, there was a lot of wind. Our instructor sergeant told us we would be jumping from 200-foot towers. We’d probably never jump again in such conditions, but this way, we’d know what it felt like. The sergeant said, ‘Harrison, it’s your turn, but if you want, I can take another volunteer.’ But foolishly, in my youth, I thought, if I pass on this, I won’t volunteer again. So I accepted. I climbed the tower and jumped. When I landed, I bounced several times! The sergeant ran over: ‘Nothing broken?’ I replied, ‘I don’t know, let me gather my thoughts.’ Apparently, nothing was broken. Years later, I developed neck vertebrae pain! Likely a consequence of the landing impact. But when you're young, you're strong, I just limped a bit, and I didn’t go to the doctor.”

He made his jumps from C-47s to earn his parachutist wings. On his very first jump, he was so excited he forgot to pull his risers to steer himself. He hit a rock, which made him limp for a few days. The night jump went very well. Then, he was sent to a camp near Baltimore before boarding the SS McAndrew, a former cruise ship converted into a troop transport. The journey didn’t go well. His ship collided with a French aircraft carrier on March 13, 1945. The collision caused the deaths of 69 soldiers aboard Harrison's ship. Both ships, severely damaged, were sent to Portugal. There, Harrison transferred to a British ship to head to Liverpool.

“We boarded this ship, it stank, it was filthy! The food was terrible! The meat was rotten. We threw it overboard!” Eventually, Harrison disembarked in France, in Le Havre. He was sent to Charleville. There, the group was split up. Harrison was sent to Mourmelon. He joined the HQ of the 506th PIR Regiment.

“There, I fell asleep. A sergeant came to wake me up. ‘What on earth are you doing?’ I told him I didn’t know what I was doing or where I was and that he shouldn’t wake me. ‘Okay, follow me, I have to go into town to fetch some messages and things; you’ll help me carry my bag.’ We eventually became good friends.”

Next, they boarded the “Red Ball Express,” open trucks heading for Landsberg, Germany. The journey lasted three days in open trucks.

“It rained on us. We were dirty and soaked. The food was cold.”

They arrived in Landsberg a few days after the Germans had fled to Austria. They stationed at the hospital, allowing them to sleep in a good bed. There was a camp outside the town.

“Horrible conditions! The people were exhausted. There were many dead in the camp. We forced the local population to clean the camp and bury the bodies.”

Then, his regiment was sent to Berchtesgaden, in the Alps. Harrison was temporarily assigned to the Company HQ.

“I was chosen to deliver messages from Company HQ to Regimental HQ. It was located in a very fancy hotel called Geiger Haus. From there, you could see Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest. When I arrived, the sergeant told me to choose a room. I took the first one I found. It was very luxurious! I opened a cabinet, and there was French champagne and Italian wine.”

On Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day), he was busy drinking with his friend Kaiser (who was in demolition). Then, an incident occurred:

“We were drinking champagne. I had taken a silver cup from a German doctor. Kaiser dropped his cup from the balcony onto Colonel Smith and General Maxwell Taylor. Since I was there temporarily, they didn’t suspect us. They blamed the communications team. I just sat at the bar. A captain got severely chewed out! I had never seen anything like it!”

After two weeks, they were ordered to move towards Austria. On the way, the convoy was strafed by snipers. They went to a place called Bruck, a tiny town in a mountain gorge along a river.

“I stayed with locals. Every morning, a little girl would go into the mountains to pick an edelweiss flower and put it in a vase on my bedside table. We had said we would sleep in the halls, but the people didn’t want that. I talked politics with them. They told me that since the Habsburg reign, they had never been happy again. One day, I brought them white bread. They had never seen it! They cut it as if it were a delicacy. I started stealing a loaf of bread a day for them.”

Later, Harold Harrison volunteered to work in the personnel department.

“I don’t know why no one else accepted. I wanted to go back to law school after the war. Since I was afraid to go back to school, I volunteered. It was stupid. I missed out on many trips and visits. I didn’t have a good typewriter. My friend next to me would lend me his when he was done. One day, I had to type the list of all the PFCs in the regiment. I started typing the names on my machine. Then I took my friend’s machine to type the serial numbers. It was very neat. But since the two machines were a bit different, I ended up with more names than serial numbers. It was a mystery for the officers in the department! I got yelled at like never before in my life!”

He didn’t enjoy the job! He wanted to get out of there. Eventually, he had to make a qualifying jump.

“I walked into the office in my jump suit and said: ‘Captain Keanen, this job is too stressful, I need to be transferred out of here!’”

Afterward, Harold Harrison worked for Captain George W. Bartlett. At this time, he was in Joigny, 90 km south of Paris.

“I had to sign forms for him: Captain George Bartlett III, Infantry. He always left me a phone number in case of emergency. One day, a truck arrived to deliver something. I didn’t want to take responsibility for signing the receipt. I called the captain. He was in charming company, and I was disturbing him! He said: ‘Damn it, Harrison, I told you to sign George Bartlett III, Infantry,’ and he hung up on me.”
Since he was near Paris, Harold Harrison took the opportunity to visit the city. He found the people very friendly and the food excellent. He visited Napoleon’s Tomb, the Folies Bergère, Versailles, etc. The 101st was deactivated in Joigny.

“Every night the band played the regimental song: ‘Lili Marlene.’ On the last night, Captain Bartlett stood in front of the window to salute the men. I said to him: ‘Captain, don’t you think the next war will be a machine affair?’ He turned around and said: ‘Harrison, the infantry will always have to stand up and hold!’

Since Harold had joined the conflict late, he had to stay in the army for a while longer. He was sent to the 82nd Airborne. He spent Christmas in Tidworth, a small town south of Southampton in England. He helped a priest write a book about the 82nd. Then, he left England for the United States aboard the Queen Mary. He was stationed at Camp Shanks, New York.

“I met a good friend who had jumped with the 17th Airborne over the Rhine. His name was Albert Oz. He lived in Manhattan. We had been at Camp Shanks for two weeks when he said to me: ‘I don’t know many people in Manhattan. But if you come with me, I think we’ll get a few free drinks.’ It turned out he knew ALL the bartenders in Manhattan. He told me that if we hadn’t had that accident at sea, I would have jumped with the 17th over the Rhine too. Oz was one of only three men from his company who survived.”

He spent two weeks in New York and partied a lot. He requested to be sent to Fort Sheridan, Illinois, because his girlfriend lived in Chicago and he wanted to resume law studies there. At Fort Sheridan, he got a leave of absence. He returned home, where he contracted the mumps. He was able to stay home longer. Finally, on March 23, 1946, he was discharged from the army. Harold Harrison resumed his studies and graduated from Northwestern University in Chicago. He practiced law for 50 years, working in Denver, Colorado, and Helena, Montana. He married three times but never had children. In November 1999, Harold passed away from a heart attack. The day before, he had been working on a ruling. He was awarded the Victory Medal, American Theater Ribbon, European-African-Middle Eastern Theater Ribbon, a Bronze Star, and the Good Conduct Medal.