Vernon Hills man secures Air Force medal for his dad, 70 years after war
In 1941, he was too young to enlist in the U.S. armed services, so after high school Leslie Harvey headed for Canada, which welcomed 17-year-olds and taught them to fly.
A few months later, Dec. 7, 1941, caused the U.S. military to adjust its attitude. Harvey and other young American fliers who crossed the border were called back home. By 1942, he was training at Camden, South Carolina, and by early 1943, he was a newly commissioned second lieutenant in the Army Air Corps, ready to fly a B-24 bomber against the Japanese. He wasn't even 20.
That was 72 years ago. On Monday, local veterans convened at the Veterans Memorial in Buffalo Grove to honor Harvey, who attained the rank of captain, as he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, one of the Air Force's highest honors.
Mike Harvey, Leslie's son, accepted the cross. He had worked for years to get the medal which he knew his dad had been awarded - Leslie Harvey's tombstone reads "DFC" - but the paperwork had vanished. Eventually, Harvey and U.S. Rep. Robert Dold's staff convinced the Air Force, and on Monday, Dold presided over the touching ceremony.
"As part of the Greatest Generation, when our country called on Captain Harvey to protect our nation, he courageously answered the call," Dold said. "Captain Harvey and the brave men and women who fought with him put their lives on the line when the fate of the world literally hung in the balance."
The young Harvey flew back and forth across the eastern Himalayas, what Allied pilots called the "Hump" or the "Burma Hump." Japanese troops had blocked all land access to China, so resupplying Chinese troops and U.S. forces based in China had fallen to the pilots, who were taking vital supplies from India over the mountains on a treacherous route.
After the war, Harvey stayed in the Pacific Theater through 1946, shuttling supplies and homebound troops. He had 3,000 hours of flight time by the time he left, with trips that got more exotic after the war - to Shanghai, Tokyo and several Pacific islands.
In 1948 and 1949, Harvey - now a member of the fledgling Air Force - flew more than 100 missions in the Berlin Airlift, rumbling over the Soviet blockade of western Berlin in his big bomber, dropping food and fuel to hungry Germans.
He retired from service in 1953 and moved his family to Chicago from California. He died in 1956 when he was only 33, and when his son, Mike, was only 7.
Harvey had retired with a fistful of medals - the American Defense Medal, a World War II Victory Campaign Meda,; two Air Medals with three oak leaf clusters, an Asia-Pacific Campaign medal, an Army of Occupation medal (Berlin Airlift "Operation Vittles") and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
But the cross never arrived, and when Mike was old enough to pursue it, he did.
"I did this for his great-grandchildren," said Mike Harvey, himself a Vietnam veteran.
"I had his other medals but I couldn't find the cross," Mike added. "I had press releases about it, a news article about it. I went to Dold and asked for help.
"They could not find anything in his file that showed it. I don't know if we just wore them down or what."
Mike Harvey said Monday's event was a "phenomenal ceremony" with two color guards. He spoke about his father's service, and a lieutenant colonel presented the Distinguished Flying Cross.
"It was very moving for me to meet these people," said Mike, who lives in Vernon Hills. His dad is buried in Vermillion, South Dakota, one of the places he lived as a kid growing up.