Jack Spencer Harrison
MilitaryShot down 18 April 1944 while piloting B-17 #42-37902 'Sure Thing.' Became a Prisoner of War.
"Rev. Jack Harrison
Sqdn. Leader, 390th Bomb Group, Framlingham, England
Two months after his 20th birthday his B-17, “A Sure Thing”, was shot down by flak. “We parachuted out of our burning bomber. Within three minutes two other forts in my squadron went down in flames”. Jacks life was probably saved by a German sergeant who point his automatic weapon at some civilians who were throwing bricks at him.
He later experienced harsh treatment at the hands of his captors, and barely escaped injury from some stray British bombs. Once again he was saved by circumstances, this time a German girl brought him a hot bowl of barley soup at 2:30 in the morning, in the middle of a blizzard while on a forced march from one camp to another.
Jack was a POW for 13 months before being liberated. He returned home at the war’s end and became a teacher and a civilian flight instructor amassing more than 21,000 total flight hours. One more thing he did was to write the Irving parachute company in England and apply for membership in the Caterpillar Club. He received a card and gold caterpillar pin denoting that he had saved his life using one of the company’s products. He was award the POW Medal and Purple Heart."
- Lance Anderson (Profile linked in the "Revisions" section)
Connections
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Units served with
People
Aircraft
Missions
- Date: 22 March 1944
- Date: 16 March 1944
- Date: 15 March 1944
- Date: 9 March 1944
- Date: 4 March 1944
Places
Events
Event | Location | Date | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Enlisted |
Madison, Wisconsin, USA | 20 April 1942 | Enlisted as an Aviation Cadet with the enlisted serial number 16056340 |
Other Shot Down |
Barnewitz, Germany | 18 April 1944 | Shot down over a mission to Oranienburg, Germany, while piloting B-17 42-37902. |
Other Prisoner Of War |
Stalag III, Sagan, Poland | 18 April 1944 | Spent 13 months as a POW at Stalag III. |
Born |
Madison, Wisconsin, USA | 14 February 2016 | |
Died |
20 February 2016 | ||
Buried |
Florida National Cemetery | 20 February 2016 | |
Based |
Framlingham | Assigned to 568BS, 390BG, 8AF. |
Revisions
Source: Jack provided the Chapter with a brief bio when he joined the organization.
lda 3/22/16
Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / MACR 4013 / Paul Andrews, Project Bits and Pieces, 8th Air Force Roll of Honor database