Anyone Remember Harley Harless....SRAP?

[Jim Sheppard]

I received this note today. Anyone who can contribute please contact Sue Quinn-Morris:

"I got your email addresses from the 1st Bn, 50th Infantry website. On there you have listed Harley Harless who served with you in Vietnam - listed as passing away in either 1975 or 1976.
I am trying to locate someone that may have served with him, has some stories and or photos of him - or has more information on his death/family.
I am Director of Research for the Vietnam Dog Tag Project - we have approx. 400 dog tags found in Vietnam and we are trying to return them to their owners. I believe that one of the dog tags I have belongs to Harley and would like to get it back to his family.
I have reached out to the Mayor in Gilbert, WV, where Harley appears to be buried. She is asking some questions of the local folks, etc - so I await to hear from her as well. Below my sign off, you will see the information I have gathered on Harley so far. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Also, if you visit our website, you will see a list of dog tags that we have that we are trying to return. You may want to have a look through it and see if any of them might belong to any of your known comrades.
For more information about the project, etc go to http://www.powmiaawareness.org and click on DOG TAG PROJECT."
Kind Regards
Sue Quinn-Morris
squinn9807@aol.com / 856-495-7270
American Legion - Cherry Hill, NJ - www.alch372.com
POW/MIA Awareness Committee of NJ - www.powmiaawareness.org

[kelly125]

thanks a lot for remind me

[squinn9807]

Program delivers dog tags to owners’ families

Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV
June 4, 2012

By GREG JORDAN
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

PRINCETON — They were relics of a war, just small tabs of metal stamped with a soldier’s name, rank, serial number and other pertinent information. For collectors, the dog tags didn’t have much meaning, but for the families behind the names on them, the tags represented loved ones too often long departed.

Back in 1993, a retired police chief, Ray Milligan of Deptford, N.J., was in Vietnam with a group called Operation Smile. He was there as logistics support coordinator for the project’s medical program. In the small shops lining the street outside his hotel, he saw that vendors were selling what appeared to be old, rusty American dog tags as souvenirs. He bought 350 of them and later gave them to the POW/MIA Awareness Committee of New Jersey.

The organization’s director of research, Sue Quinn-Morris, has worked to reunite the dog tags with their owners’ families. Several veterans’ organizations including the Nam Knights of America have helped with the project.

“What we have done different with this project since receiving the dog tags is to ensure that each dog tag, when welcomed, is hand delivered to the veteran, or to their family, by a veteran,” Quinn-Morris said in a POW/MIA Awareness Committee statement.

On May 26, a dog tag that once belonged to Harley David Harless, born Nov. 2, 1949, was returned to his daughter, Amy Hollins, 40, of Princeton. Harless served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. He was with the 1st Brigade, 50th Infantry — the Short Range Ambush Patrol.

Jack Noble, a former comrade, remembered Harless as “a great guy and an excellent soldier — Harley was the RTO for his platoon,” according to the POW/MIA release. Harless returned home in 1969, married, and had a child, Amy Harless. In 1976, he was killed in Iaegar. After some effort, Quinn-Morris managed to find Amy, now Amy Hollins.

“She had been searching for me for quite some time, and, frankly, Facebook is how she found me,” Hollins told the Bluefield Daily Telegraph.

On May 26, a veteran presented Hollins with her father’s dog tag during a ceremony at the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C. It took place with the Nam Knights of America MC along with the POW/MIA Awareness Committee.

“It was very emotional. They hand-delivered them,” Hollins recalled. “They go through so much to get these, and it’s such an honor.”

Hollins now wears her father’s dog tag.

“It’s got his Social Security number…that he was Baptist. I’ve been wearing them ever since I got them,” she said. “They’ve got holes in them. They’re good and worn. They cleaned them up pretty good.”

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

http://bdtonline.com/local/x234182680/P ... s-families

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO VIEW HARLEY HARLESS VIETNAM PHOTO ALBUM, go to http://www.powmiaawareness.org/2012/03/12/dog-tag-to-be-returned-to-daughter-of-harley-harless-at-wall-in-washington-dc/

[Jim Sheppard]

Sue Quinn must have posted to this thread not knowing of my work on Harley Harless.

Prior to the presentation of the Dog Tags to Harley's daughter, I researched and contacted via "snail-mail" a dozen or so men from SRAP who knew Harley and requested someone to attend the presentation in Washington, DC on Memorial Day (2012). No one could make the event...so I planned on attending myself. In preparation, I did several things...including setting up a Photo Album on our website: http://ichiban1.org/images/photos/harless/index.htm. On our album...I took the photos donated by Harley's daughter and did some enhancement, etc.

I also approached the Association Officers and suggested we issue a posthumous lifetime membership to Harless. A unanymous approval was returned & I framed a Lifetime Membership Certificate to present to Harless' daughter in Washington...but I was "knocked out" with the flu on that weekend and could not attend. I was terribly dissapointed....as I wanted someone to attend and represent Harley's former unit.

I mailed the certificate to Harley's daughter...but never received a response or thank you....not that one was necessary, but I would like to know if the certificate was ever received.

[catainjr]

i was brough tin to aid sation on night of nov 2,1970 my boot were cut off my dog tags were on my boots If they are avaiable I would really like to have them J R Dacus at jrdacus@att.net