Major General Reginald C. Harmon

US Air Force Military Biographies, Annual, 2004

MAJOR GENERAL REGINALD C. HARMON

Retired March 31, 1960. Died Oct. 19, 1992.

Reginald Carl Harmon was born in 1900 on a farm in Olney, Ill. His parents were direct descendants or early settlers of Illinois. At an early age, he accepted a schoolmaster's position at a country school. In 1922, he entered the University of Illinois. He began his law studies in the University of Illinois College of Law. In 1924 and received his bachelor of laws degree in 1927. While a university student, General Harmon taught a Protestant Sunday School class consisting of university students. This religious teaching continued over a 10 year period. His average classes included some 100 to 150 students. During this period, and while teaching this class, he met him wife, Doris, also a graduate of the University of Illinois.

From his earliest years as the youngest mayor in the history of the city of Urbana, Ill., (1929-1933) and at the time the youngest in the United States of a town of that size, General Harmon set precedent and received national recognition as a bold and progressive administrator. In 1929, seizing the initiative amid a collapsing economy, he declared for his city the nation's first bank holiday closings to permit reorganization of the banks' assets, thereby averting bank failures experienced throughout the rest of the nation.

Being the mayor of a university city, General Harmon soon found novel and unique problems not normally shared by mayors of other cities. The solution of these problems demanded the sageness of a city father and the wisdom of a university dean. He welded these qualities so well into his personality that he was returned to office for a second two-year term before returning to the practice of law. He has now been a member of the Illinois Bar for 30 years and of the United States Supreme Court Bar for 17 years.

Notwithstanding the time demands of his duties as a mayor and as a private practitioner, General Harmon found time to serve and lead in a variety of fraternal and civic endeavors. At one time he was the state president of the National Exchange Club in Illinois, an organization of business and professional people. In the Order of Freemasonry he has attained the eminent positions of high priest of the Urbana Chapter of Royal Arch Masons and commander of the Urbana Commandery of Knights Templar. He holds active membership in the Order of the Mystic Shrine and the Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity.

Outside of his official duties as the Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Air Force, General Harmon is active in civic and religious enterprises in the city of Washington, D.C. As long-time supporters of the National Symphony Orchestra, he and Mrs. Harmon (a musician in her own right) have consistently contributed much time and effort in the support of this and comparable cultural programs. His religious activities have found recognition in his selection as a ruling elder in the National Presbyterian Church, where he, Mrs. Harmon and their daughter, Susan, are in regular attendance.

Outstanding Military Career

General Harmon's military career had its inception with the University of Illinois Reserve Officers Training Corps which was the source of his commission as a second lieutenant (Field Artillery) in 1926. In October 1940, he was called to active duty in the military service at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, as a major in the Army Reserve Corps. From 1940 through 1945, he was in charge of the legal representation of the United States government in the industrial expansion program to meet the needs of the Army Air Corps during World War II. In recognition of his outstanding service in this position, he was awarded the Army Commendation Ribbon and, later, the Legion of Merit.

This official recognition of his merit as a government lawyer is particularly noteworthy. The Air Force has long been one of the largest businesses in the world. Billions of United States taxpayers' dollars were appropriated during World War II for the operation and needs of the Army Air Force. Money spent for aircraft, airfields, equipment, research and the like had to be spent in accordance with the law based on sound legal advice. This part of military law includes many functions, such as million-dollar contracts, vast procurement programs, taxation, litigation and patent laws. The inherent problems of such activities are frequent and complex. General Harmon's professional acumen enabled him to arrive at the most practical and economical solutions in this area of activity. It was primarily for this reason that he was so recognized by being awarded the Legion of Merit.

First Judge-Advocate General of the U.S. Air Force

From 1945 to 1948, General Harmon was the staff judge advocate of the Air Materiel Command at Dayton, Ohio. In 1946, he was commissioned in the Regular Army. When the Department of the Air Force became a separate service in 1947, General Harmon, then serving with the Air Materiel Command, was logically included in the nucleus for a Judge Advocate General's Department of the Air Force. On Sept. 8, 1948, General Harmon (then a temporary colonel) was appointed by the president of the United States as the first judge advocate general of the U.S. Air Force and promoted to the temporary rank of major general. In 1951, he was promoted to the permanent rank of major general in the Regular Air Force.