thedrifter
08-16-06, 09:25 AM
Silver Star winner recalls 'amazing' White House visit
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
By SHELBY G. SPIRES
Times Aerospace Writer shelby.spires@htimes.com
Johnson High grad led Marines to capture insurgents
On July 4, when Americans were watching fireworks, dining on hot dogs and hamburgers or gasping at the space shuttle launch, Marine Corps Maj. John "J.D." Harrill III, a Huntsville native, was spending time with the president of the United States.
A recent Silver Star winner, Harrill, his wife, Joanne, and children, John, David and Jessica, were invited to spend Independence Day at the White House watching fireworks and chatting with President Bush.
"It's was truly, absolutely amazing," Harrill said by phone from Richmond, Va., last week. "It has to be one of the greatest opportunities of my life to take my family" to the White House.
A 1988 graduate of Johnson High School, Harrill was one of three Marine Corps Silver Star winners invited to the July Fourth festivities. Bush took about 45 minutes out of his schedule to meet with Harrill and the other military award winners, Harrill said.
Harrill earned the Silver Star for charging into enemy machine gun positions to break up ambushes set by insurgents during late March and early April 2004 in Ramadi - a city of about 450,000 in central Iraq about 60 miles west of Baghdad.
"During that time, the city really just exploded with thousands of insurgents, and Marines were getting ambushed all over the place," Harrill said. "We had Marines fighting house to house all over the city."
According to Harrill's citation, the Silver Star was awarded for two actions: On March 31, 2004, he led four Marines in a nighttime pursuit of an ambush attack force of insurgents; five days later, Harrill led a raid that captured three enemy leaders who had been planning a counteroffensive against American troops.
Harrill, operations officer of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, in Ramadi, credits his Marine training for his success.
"It was that and the fact that I knew I could count on the good Marines on my left and right because they are like brothers, and that they were counting on me," he said.
There wasn't much doubt, said Dave Harrill of Madison County, that his son would follow him into the Marines. "From about the time he could speak, certainly as a small boy, he always said he wanted to grow up and be a Marine," he said.
Having a son away at war is more worrisome than fighting in one, said Harrill, who retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1983 and was chief instructor for the Marine Jr. ROTC program at Johnson for 17 years.
As a young officer, Dave Harrill spent two year-long tours of duty in Vietnam, "but that was nothing compared to the worry I felt for my son while he spent seven months in Iraq."
Today, with Iraq at least temporarily behind him, John Harrill leads a Marine recruiting station in Richmond. After completing that assignment, Harrill expects to be sent back to Iraq.
"I feel like Ramadi is kind of like my hometown," he said, "and I've got this vested interest to see that it goes well there."
Ellie
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
By SHELBY G. SPIRES
Times Aerospace Writer shelby.spires@htimes.com
Johnson High grad led Marines to capture insurgents
On July 4, when Americans were watching fireworks, dining on hot dogs and hamburgers or gasping at the space shuttle launch, Marine Corps Maj. John "J.D." Harrill III, a Huntsville native, was spending time with the president of the United States.
A recent Silver Star winner, Harrill, his wife, Joanne, and children, John, David and Jessica, were invited to spend Independence Day at the White House watching fireworks and chatting with President Bush.
"It's was truly, absolutely amazing," Harrill said by phone from Richmond, Va., last week. "It has to be one of the greatest opportunities of my life to take my family" to the White House.
A 1988 graduate of Johnson High School, Harrill was one of three Marine Corps Silver Star winners invited to the July Fourth festivities. Bush took about 45 minutes out of his schedule to meet with Harrill and the other military award winners, Harrill said.
Harrill earned the Silver Star for charging into enemy machine gun positions to break up ambushes set by insurgents during late March and early April 2004 in Ramadi - a city of about 450,000 in central Iraq about 60 miles west of Baghdad.
"During that time, the city really just exploded with thousands of insurgents, and Marines were getting ambushed all over the place," Harrill said. "We had Marines fighting house to house all over the city."
According to Harrill's citation, the Silver Star was awarded for two actions: On March 31, 2004, he led four Marines in a nighttime pursuit of an ambush attack force of insurgents; five days later, Harrill led a raid that captured three enemy leaders who had been planning a counteroffensive against American troops.
Harrill, operations officer of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, in Ramadi, credits his Marine training for his success.
"It was that and the fact that I knew I could count on the good Marines on my left and right because they are like brothers, and that they were counting on me," he said.
There wasn't much doubt, said Dave Harrill of Madison County, that his son would follow him into the Marines. "From about the time he could speak, certainly as a small boy, he always said he wanted to grow up and be a Marine," he said.
Having a son away at war is more worrisome than fighting in one, said Harrill, who retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1983 and was chief instructor for the Marine Jr. ROTC program at Johnson for 17 years.
As a young officer, Dave Harrill spent two year-long tours of duty in Vietnam, "but that was nothing compared to the worry I felt for my son while he spent seven months in Iraq."
Today, with Iraq at least temporarily behind him, John Harrill leads a Marine recruiting station in Richmond. After completing that assignment, Harrill expects to be sent back to Iraq.
"I feel like Ramadi is kind of like my hometown," he said, "and I've got this vested interest to see that it goes well there."
Ellie