William K. Harrison, Jr.’s life expressed those hopes stated in the Cadet Prayer: “…help us to draw near to Thee in sincerity and truth…Help us to maintain the honor of the Corps untarnished and unsullied and to show forth in our lives the ideals of West Point in doing our duty to Thee and to our Country.” By all accounts, Bill Harrison was indeed faithful to the end to those ideals he valued so highly.
His 44 years of active military service demonstrated the fact of his full commitment and dedication to his profession. While he remained ambitious always, he never lost sight of his initial impression—that his was a “Calling;” that his chosen vocation was itself an ordination into the work of God. Throughout his career, Bill Harrison sought God’s guidance, reading his Bible and praying daily for fresh insights. Just days before he passed away, while he still had strength, he professed that God had consistently met his needs, that “He is the one who must receive honor and glory, not an old, decorated soldier.” Whatever Bill Harrison did for his country, he accomplished it because he was faithful to his priorities—love for God and duty to his country.
Widely recognized as a deeply religious man, Bill was also known as a first-rate professional soldier. An officer who served under him in the 30th Infantry Division during World War II wrote, “He was a soldier’s soldier, observed daily on the front lines with the troops, showing to all his confidence and leadership.” Another officer of the 30th remarked, “Of all the generals I’ve ever known, General Harrison is the most outstanding…I am a better man for having known him.” He served the 30th, the Old Hickory Division, as its assistant division commander, and in this capacity was responsible for its training. About the division’s war efforts, the military historian, S.L.A. Marshall (whose study group did an evaluation of battle groups for General Eisenhower) wrote: “The 30th was the outstanding infantry division of the European Theater.” Because of his own meritorious action near St. Lo, General Harrison received the Distinguished Service Cross, cited for his unselfish devotion to duty, for valor and courage, and for disregarding his own personal safety during an extreme time of crisis.
William Kelly Harrison came from a line of military men. His father, a Naval Academy graduate, was the one great influence in his life, encouraging him early-on to read military history and good literature, especially the Bible. Early in childhood, Bill Harrison’s mind was full of things military. When in his early teens he first rode horses, he knew with certainty that he wanted to be a cavalry officer. His pride in the military service and all that it might have to offer him professionally was further nurtured when his father won the Congressional Medal of Honor at Vera Cruz in 1914.
So, in September 1913 Bill Harrison entered West Point (with a Senatorial appointment from Texas) knowing precisely what he wanted to do in life. His love for the cavalry did not go unnoticed by his classmates. His 1917 Howitzer reads in part: “But for this insane yearning for the mounted service, his character would be irreproachable.”
During the two decades following his graduation from the Academy in 1917, Bill served in various capacities. His initial duty station was at Camp Hearn, California with the 1st Cavalry; then soon after in Douglas, Arizona, a staging area from which cavalry units, including Lieutenant Harrison’s, would make sorties against the Mexican bandit, “Pancho” Villa. Soon after, with the rank of captain, he transferred back to West Point to teach French and Spanish. While on the faculty, he pursued further language studies in both France and Spain. But Bill did not want an academic career. He actively sought and in time received troop assignments, first with the 7th Cavalry Regiment at Fort Bliss, Texas; then with the 26th Cavalry Regiment (Philippine Scouts) at Camp Stotsenburg in the Philippines. Subsequently, he was posted to command and staff responsibilities with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment at Ft. Riley, Kansas, in time taking the advanced course there, after which he became a member of the Cavalry Board and a troop commander with the 9th Cavalry. By 1937, Bill Harrison, now a major, had graduated from Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and had joined the faculty there as an instructor of tactics. In this same year, he entered the Army War College in Washington, D.C., and upon graduation in 1938 was assigned to the 6th Cavalry at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. He went with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
But the period 1939-1942 was perhaps the most significant in terms of Bill Harrison’s contributions to the Army. It was during these years that the Army’s high command and organizational structure was redrawn. This major undertaking, commenced in response to the approach of war, was accomplished on the basis of the recommendations and final plan put forth by Colonel Harrison, who became a member of the War Plans Division of the War Department General Staff in 1939. About the reorganization, General George Marshall later remarked, “Without it, I couldn’t have run the War.” As a result of this effort, Colonel Harrison was promoted to the rank of brigadier general; and three years later, while serving with the 30th Division at Inden, Germany, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for “conceiving, planning, and patiently coordinating the development of the proposed structure…The fundamental improvement in the functioning of the War Department is a tribute to General Harrison’s personal efforts.”
In both World War II and the Korean War, Bill Harrison performed with distinction. His reputation for preparing the Old Hickory Division (30th) for combat was widely known by the close of European activities. The Germans referred to the 30th as “Roosevelt’s fanatical SS troops.” An Associated Press correspondent termed the division as the “workhorse” of the American Army. Very early in the war, word came from Second Army Headquarters that they “had never seen such a performance in training as that given by the 30th Infantry Division.” By war’s close, the division had won many decorations, but General Harrison was its most decorated individual. Although he was fundamentally opposed to general officers receiving awards, he did receive, other than the DSC and DSM, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Service Order of Great Britain, France’s Croix de Guerre and Legion d ‘Honneur, the Grand Flag of the Soviet Union; and was given membership into the Order of Orange-Nassau by Queen Wilhelmina of Holland. However, General Harrison spoke of his Purple Heart as the medal of which he was most proud!
Bill Harrison’s efforts as chief armistice negotiator in the final months of the Korean War (1953) won him a reputation as a tough negotiator, a man whom the Communists could not push around. According to London’s Daily Telegraph, “His patience and resolution during this period were…praised by the Marquess of Salisbury in Parliament.” And for Bill Harrison’s negotiating efforts to bring the war to a close, Queen Elizabeth awarded him the Companion of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath. Years later, General Harrison’s Communist negotiations opponent, General Nam II, remarked that “He was a very tough man.”
But throughout his career, Bill remained profoundly religious. Said a veteran of the 30th, “…I realized that this outwardly calm, inwardly tough soul was a deeply religious man and an active evangelist…saving people in a spiritual sense was his true vocation…his distinguished military service was an avocation, one means to achieving his apostolic ends.”
His final command was in Panama, from 1954-1957, where he assumed command of the Caribbean Theater. Essentially, his work evolved now to administrative and diplomatic responsibilities, efforts for which he was very well prepared by such other experiences as a member of General Mac Arthur’s staff in the position of executive for Administrative Affairs and Reparations and the position of executive for Economic and Industrial Affairs (Japan, 1947-1949) and as Chief, Army-Air Force Troop Information and Education Division at the Pentagon (1950-1951). General Harrison retired from the Army on 28 February 1957.
Upon retiring and for several years following, Bill received several lucrative job offers in the world of business, but he chose instead to pursue matters of his Christian faith. In the year immediately following retirement, he served as executive director of a child welfare agency in Chicago. The remainder of his active life was then spent in writing, teaching the Bible, lecturing on biblical (and military) subjects, and serving on several boards of trustees. A major focus during these latter years was the Officers Christian Fellowship, an international organization of Christian officers of the military establishment, an organization of which he was president for 18 years. A very keen interest of Bill’s over his many years of Army service had been the spiritual nurturing of officers of all the services.
General Harrison had three children by his first wife, Eva Toole, to whom he was faithfully married for 59 years and whose prayers and wifely support, he contended, gave him the encouragement he needed throughout the years of service. “She was God’s gift to me,” he often said. Five years after her death, he married Forrest King, who preceded his own death by 17 months. Of eight grandchildren, four are career Army, and one is a graduate of the Academy.
Perhaps his life is best summed up by one of his children: “Bill Harrison was indeed an outstanding officer. He was one of those Academy graduates who did fulfill the ideals of the Point. But we who knew him best knew where his real strength lay. It was not in his irreproachable character, which itself was genuine, but it was in his consistent and determined faith in his Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, whom he always credited for his many blessings.”
W. Terry Harrison, son