Smyrna, Georgia, will commemorate Veterans Day during a ceremony at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 11, at the 20th Century Veterans Memorial.
The Smyrna Veterans Committee organized the event, featuring retired United States Air Force Major General George Harrison as the speaker.
He started as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1962, flew 530 hours of combat missions in Vietnam/Southeast Asia, and logged 4,900 hours of total flight time. He flew various aircraft, including the 0-1F as a pilot and forward air controller, F-4 Phantom II as a fighter pilot, and an F-16, AT-38, EC-135, E-3 and E-8C.
He earned eight major decorations, including the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Metal with 11 oak clusters.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the US Air Force Academy and an MBA from Wharton. While in the USAF, he was posted to several US states, Vietnam and West Germany and was promoted seven times, making him Major General in 1989.
From 1993 to 1997, he was the commander of the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center. In this capacity, he had a staff of 900 and directed over 300 major testing programs at 20 locations.
These programs supported aircraft such as the B-IB Lancer, B-2A Spirit, F-22 Raptor, and an F-15E Strike Eagle. Harrison retired from the USAF in 1997 and became a principal research engineer at the prestigious Georgia Tech Research Institute.
