National Naval Aviation Museum

In Their Own Words - Lieutenant Commander Harry W. Harrison

“He is very cool, calm, level headed and steady.” These words, written in 1936 by a flight instructor at Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola, Florida, characterized Aviation Cadet Harry W. Harrison. In 1943-1944, he had to rely on each of these attributes as he led men into combat. Harrison's wartime diary, in which he documented service in Fighting Squadron (VF) 5 and command of VF-6, captures the excitement of air combat in the first campaigns of the Central Pacific offensive as well as the experience of enduring enemy air attacks at sea.

Read entries from the wartime diary of Harry W. Harrison