Bill Harrison:  

CLASS OF 1971
Bill Harrison's Classmates® Profile Photo
Billings, MT

Bill's Story

I left Billings after a year at RMC for the Air Force. I Married a southern gal that I really did not know that well, had a son, divorced southern gal and got custody. Got out of service, and stayed put in the south, married another southern gal. I moved to NC to go to NCSU for Engineering. My first wife kidnapped my son when he was 4yo, and in the process, ruined marrage number 2. Moved to Virginia and finished my degree as an Engineer, and in the process found my first wife and son located in Memphis, had stopped in Arkansas, went to court to get my son back and suffered a judge that had averaged giving a father custody only once every 11 years. I was not one of them. I married my third and current wife, (another southern gal.) Oh yeah, and I stayed associated with the military. (I was in Intelligence - and involved back when being Intel was real spycraft stuff, during the cold war era, back when we knew who the bad guys were and we did not spy on our own citizens the way they are now.) My son is now in his mid 30's and lives and works in Alaska - he is the athlete that I am not. He placed 1st in Skills competition at the Worldwide 2012 world international Disk Golf Competition - he does not know how proud I am of the effort and dedication he shows to those items in his life that he cherishes! Back to history: I've been a Land surveyor, construction project manager and field photographer for the government, I have been to Canada, Mexico, the pacific rim countries, (I really liked Austrailia, Japan and South Korea. (Does any body have contact info for Ikoul O'kuda, (sp) the BSH Japanese Exchange Student?), across Europe and to most of the middle east nations. I was one of THE first to be 'called up' for Desert Shield/ Desert Storm. Helping work up the Air Forces' plans that determined the needs that got everybody else called to active duty and then worked putting targets and weapon systems together for the air war phase. In Sept 2003, Hurricane Isabel took our house. A total loss, it was condemned, We lived a hotel for 3 months, then in a rental house an additional 18 months and finally moved to our current home out in the Virginia country-side. I was assigned as a reserve photographer for one of the big national intelligence agencies, traveling, doing special imagery collection or handling and at the same time I worked at a local city Engineering Dept then the state of VA. as an engineer. I retired from Feds in 95 and the State in the summer of '08 and finally became a consultant. I was one of the charter members and served 7 years on the Board of Directors for a local 501c Domestic Violence Charity. I have served a couple terms as an elder at my (Presbyterian) Church. From 1989 until 2004, I taught evening adult edu. classes at 2 local Vo-Techs (yes, thats' 15 years!). In 2004 my wife was suffering so much pain, she was classified as disabled as she could not work. In '97 I also started teac...Expand for more
hing classes for the VA state health department to engineers locally, this morphed into a national lecture. I traveled and lectured courses for professional engineers for the U of Wisc at Madison continuing edu program. 2009, I was a consultant under Gov contract in Iraq. While there, I lived in a villa in Baghdad and traveled the entire country, in civilian vehicles with former Brittish SOF 'delta team' as bodyguards, I pulled assessment/inspections of the Iraqi Army and Police water and sewer systems at their bases which were no-longer occupied by Coallition Forces. We lost a vehicle to an IED near Mosul, in the north. I lost my driver and interpreter in an ambush near Basrah, to the south. But in the end, I somehow came out unscathed. I thought I would be going back the following year for another contract; howerver, a new president and changing priorities that firm did not get the funding so the work went bust. The US economy was still in the tank and it took months to find work. Now I am a Construction Project Manager in Northern VA and I commute weekends back and forth to my wife in southern VA. (HOLY PETE, you have more cars stuck in one traffic jamb here that are registered in all of Montana !!! I checked...) Updates and additional thoughts - > Reference above, going to School at NCSU for engineering in the early 80's - I just recently realized that I was in engineering there at the same time, and KNEW, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks who was an engineering student there. He and his group were real Ass's and we did not like them much. They cheated in classes constantly and justified it as being acceptable where they came from. > My roommate in Bagdad, Gus, was a former General in the Iraqi Army and served during Desert Storm, I targeted his office building but he survived our attacks to retire from service. Later he was retired and was a civilian when we took Baghdad in OIF, He was hired to help the reconstruction. Yesterday he called me from California saying he has just gotten his US Citizenship. I am SO happy for him, I was passing time at the mall getting work done on my truck at Sears auto ... I just sat there, on a bench outside Macys, and cried. I just love Gus and am amazed that it is such a twisted small world.... > I would really love to hear from school friends and want to ask if anybody has photos with me in them from our school days. You see, when Isabel took the house, I lost all my old photos. School, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, the Explores, Civil Air Patrol, camping, Rachel Lodge, Church ... all those memories, lost ........... I use live.com for my email and the handle is bill.harrison@ UPDATE - > In November 2013 I had a Heart Attack and pretty much died, was in Hypothermic state 44 hrs after surgery and on life support for 6 days after they warmed me back up. No lasting damage or side effects resulted, I am very lucky and was blessed - this time....
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Photos

Scare of a lifetime
Picture 025
Bust of Sadam
Victory Parade Grounds
At the Tiger Base in Mosul
Crossed Swords
Along the Iranian Border
in Al Kut, south of Baghdad
The Famous Al Rasheed Hotel
Sadam Bust
Iraqi shepard
Bill Harrison's Classmates profile album
Bill Harrison's Classmates profile album
Bill Harrison's Classmates profile album

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