Millard Fillmore Harmon Jr. (January 19, 1888 – February 26, 1945) was a lieutenant general in the United States Army Air Forces during the Pacific campaign in World War II. He was presumed to have perished in February 1945 on a flight when the plane carrying him disappeared in transit.
Harmon, Frank Maxwell Andrews, Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. and Lesley J. McNair, all lieutenant generals at the time of their deaths, were the highest-ranking Americans to die in World War II.
Biography
He was born on January 19, 1888, at Fort Mason, California. He was from a military family; his father Millard F. Harmon. Sr. was a colonel, one brother, Hubert R. Harmon, a lieutenant general and another, Kenneth B. Harmon, a colonel. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1912 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry, serving with the 28th and 9th Infantry Regiments. In 1914 he was ordered to the Philippines, and two years later detailed to the newly organized Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps. That year he accompanied the Mexican Punitive Expedition and did aerial patrol work along the border.
Two weeks before the United States entered World War I, Harmon, then a first lieutenant, was on his way to France. There he attended aviation schools in Paris, served at Allied and American headquarters, and was finally attached to the French 13th Group de Combat as a pilot during the Somme defensive, for which he was awarded the Croix de Guerre.
Regarding the U.S. Air Service fields under control of the Training Section in operation on January 20, 1919, Harmon was then a lieutenant colonel and wing commander of the 1st Provisional Wing (Active) at Hazelhurst Field, Mineola, Long Island, New York. Less than three months later, however, Lt. Col. Harmon was the commanding officer at France Field, Cristobal Canal Zone. (On April 16, he had sent a cablegram to the Director Air Service, stating that two of his Army fliers reported lost and delayed by engine trouble, were safe at Bluefields Bluffs.) As of May 29, 1919, Lt. Col. Harmon's 7th Aero Squadron at France Field, Panama Station, was given a reduction in force to 32 officers and 146 regular Army personnel. In March 1920, Lt. Col. Harmon was part of a hunting party operating in the interior of Panama near the Chepo River. The 7th Aero Squadron sent out four flights to locate and communicate with Harmon's party. This involved a great deal of difficulty, and it is unclear whether Harmon's party in the jungle was rescued or returned on their own. At the end of WWI, flying officers who desired to remain in the Air Service to make it a career were permitted to do so, but career commissions in the Regular Army required written examinations, which did not begin until July 7, 1920. After taking this examination, however, Harmon would have to relinquish his (temporary) lieutenant colonel officer rank in order to accept a permanent Regular Army rank of major. This occurred sometime in the four-month period between August 5, when he was still reported to be a Lt. Col., and the first week of December 1920, when Maj. Harmon placed first among his fellow officers in pistol shooting competition at France Field. On March 12, 1921, France Field reported that Maj. Harmon was ordered to report back to Washington and leaving by transport ship the last of March. During his time there, Harmon was an avid polo player who organized his France Field polo team in matches against teams from nearby Army bases. Upon his return to Washington in April, he served as a member of the Advisory Board of the Air Service. In April 1927, Maj. Harmon was relieved from duty with the War Department General Staff and assigned to March Field, Riverside, California for duty. When March Field officially reopened as an Air Corps Primary Flying School on November 1, 1927, Maj. Harmon was appointed as a Faculty Board member and listed as Commandant of March Field. On March 10, 1928, Maj. Harmon commanded a formation of DH-4s and flew the California Lieutenant-Governor on a flight to Blythe for the official opening of the new bridge across the Colorado River. During the years of peace, he continued his training, graduating from the Command and General Staff School and the Army War College. He taught military science and tactics at the University of Washington in Seattle, was assigned as an instructor in the Command and General Staff School, and served with the War Department General Staff for two years.