Posted on 05/08/2003 3:55:01 PM PDT by Dubya
Retired Air Force Col. William C. Harrison Jr., who saw the dawn of the nuclear age up close as he dropped one of the first atomic bombs on an island in the Pacific, died early this week. He was 83.
He will be buried at 10 a.m. Friday at Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery. A memorial service will follow at noon Friday at Ridglea Baptist Church.
Col. Harrison, a 30-year resident of Fort Worth who was well-known in golfing and flying circles on the west side, witnessed first-hand the building of America's nuclear might, from one small squadron in the 1940s to an army of giant Cold War-era bombers.
"He loved being a pilot," said his son, Bill Harrison III. "He loved being a part of the 509th, an elite unit back then. He flew everything in the Strategic Air Command and became a wing commander of B-52s. ... He wasn't just a witness to history. He was a participant in a lot of it."
Col. Harrison died Monday of complications from a fall at his home.
He was born Nov. 2, 1919, the child of an itinerant Baptist preacher. He joined the Army shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941 and went through flight training at Randolph Field in San Antonio.
He started off flying fighters but switched to B-29s in the Pacific Theater later during World War II.
Toward the end of World War II, he was selected for the supersecret, elite 509th Composite Group, the world's only unit capable of delivering nuclear weapons. It was commanded by Paul Tibbets.
On July 1, 1946, then-Capt. Harrison co-piloted "Dave's Dream" over the Bikini Atoll and dropped an atomic bomb, only the fourth ever exploded and the first after the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The attention of the world was focused on the site, and the military was embarrassed that the bomb fell wide of its mark. It all but hid the crew away and blamed them for the error until it was discovered that one of the bomb's fins fell off in midflight.
"The next thing dad knew he was getting medals pinned on him," Harrison said. "He went from being a pariah to having a parade. It blew his mind."
Over the course of his 30-year career, Col. Harrison played key roles in integrating computers into the military and building computer-simulated war games.
His last assignment was as a top assistant to Navy Adm. John McCain, who was head of the Pacific Command and the father of U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. He remained friends with the McCain family until his death.
Col. Harrison said he always suspected that his work for McCain and his loyalty to him spoiled his chances of making brigadier general in the Air Force, although he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, one of the Air Force's highest decorations, his son said.
Perhaps the most unusual part of his voluminous personal files relates to the attention he attracted from being stationed at Roswell, N.M., in 1947, where more than one theorist believed a UFO crashed.
"You should see all the things from movie producers, investigative reporters, UFO skeptics, nuts of every variety, who knew that he was there and knew he flew certain planes with certain tail numbers to certain locations," Harrison said. "You wouldn't believe it."
He is survived by his wife, Ann; two sons, Bill Harrison III and Hunter Scott Harrison; and five grandchildren.
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