A Woman Who Dreamed of Flying with the Marines

Jennifer Harris was one of the few female helicopter pilots in the Marines in Iraq. She's seen here during a return to the United States after a previous deployment.

The US military now confirms that the helicopter that crashed last week northwest to Baghdad was shot down by Sunni insurgence. The pilot on that Sea Knight helicopter was 28-year-old Jennifer Harris, a Marine captain who was killed along with 6 others on board. Harris served three full tours in Iraq. She was the first service woman from Massachusetts killed there. And she was due to come home in a week. NPR's Chris Arnold has this Remembrance.

Jennifer Harris stood out both in the Marine Corps in Iraq where she was one of just a handful of women flying helicopters on combat rescue missions and back in her hometown of Swampscott, Massachusetts. It's a small town on the coast north of Boston. Peter Sax was the principle of the high school when Harris went there and knew her well.

You know the people who walk in my office and you just feel good cause they are there...you know .. She lit up my room, she lit up the office, and she lit up the school. Harris grew up in a working class family. In high school, she was a sailing instructor. She volunteered at the library and the local hospital. She was a class officer all four years, a top student, national honor society. The school gives her two good citizenship awards every year, usually the two different people. Harris won them both.

Jennifer Harris was a superstar and she would blush at that. She was in this room right now, I was that she would...she didn't realize how great she was.

Sax says unlike most teenagers Jennifer always struck him as being confident and very comfortable with herself. And that stood her well when this skinny kid who played the flute in the school band to grew up, started working out, made it into the navy academy in the Naples and joined the Marines.

And they're gonna take over the escorting and the casket into the church. Matthew Marlon, the superintendent of schools is the in his office making phone calls to help arrange the military funeral coming up in a few days. Marlon himself is a Narine and a veteran of the first Gulf War.

Now she flew medevac which is ....medevac pilots...you know they are coming and you're gonna be okay. So if you got shot and you hear the trucks are coming in and they get you. These are the folks who come and save you. And that's what she did. She flew 9/11 for the Marine Corps.

Marlon said it is one of the most dangerous jobs in the military and Harris did it extremely well to a resident rank so quickly. As a 28-year-old captain, Harris outranked the most of the other veterans in the town even though many were twice her age. That didn't stop her from joking around with them Marlon says the guys at the local veterans' hall loved her.

But at the same time she was tough and you could tell that she was an officer. She had a command of presence to her and she was impressive.

Robert Lubranno grew up next door to Jennifer Harris. They were a dual as little kids. She was at his house all the time. Last week, when Lubranno saw all the cars in front of Harris' house, he thought she just gotten back from Iraq, but then he heard that she'd been killed.

You know running the house and her Mom was already here. And the Marines were there and there was just..there was just awful.

Lubranno's been going through old pictures this week. Birthday parties where he set next to Harris'. He says he was always the wilder one. Climbing trees and jumping out of them to impress her. He says Harris was more level-headed and she didn't take stupid risks but she always liked adventure. She loved sailing and Lubranno thinks all that drove her to the navy academy.

I think she's the excitement of…of doing something different and not... going to the..you know ...the-four-year college thing ...you know.. most of us are doing

Another friend of Harris is navy pilot Matt V who knew her in Naples. He spoke to Williams from the airport to help with the funeral.

She was so close to coming house and she was so excited to go due she's gonna..go to next. And take a little break from getting shot everyday. Harris' next assignment was gonna be teaching ROTC at Gorge Washington University though veteran Million heard her superiors were asking her if she wanted to join the pilots the Fly MarineⅠ,the President's helicopter.

So that just gives an idea of, you know, which kind of pilot she was.

Veteran Million says you couldn't ask for a better friend either.

Chris Arnold NPR news Boston.

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