Capt. Jennifer Harris of Swampscott, Massachusetts was an overachiever who graduated Swampscott High School in 1996 bound for the Naval Academy. She won the Neil and Jeffrey Rossman Scholarship and a Swampscott Parent-Teacher Council Scholarship, both presented at her high school graduation in 1996. Jennifer took something important from Swampscott High School with her to the U.S. Naval Academy: She organized a "Toys for Local Children" group at Annapolis, modeling it after the one started by a Swampscott High School teacher in 1984. She also sent annual checks to the local group. She got training then in Quantico, Va., Pensacola, Fla., and Corpus Christi, Texas, before being assigned to the Marine base at Camp Pendleton in California. Harris was assigned to HMM-364,the "Purple Foxes," a storied Marine squadron with a history that pre-dates the Vietnam War, the era when the CH-46 helicopter, also called the "Phrog," was first introduced. She finished her training as a helicopter pilot at the end of 2002 and then was assigned to Iraq to fly helicopters carrying both supplies and troops from bases in Iraq to Kuwait and back again. Her first tour was from February to October in 2003. Then she got a year off before returning to Iraq in January 2005, coming home in September to California and then Swampscott. She was 28.
Marines
Medium Helicopter Squadron 364
Aircraft Group 39
3rd Marine Aircraft Wing
I Marine Expeditionary Force
Camp Pendleton, California
Marines
Medium Helicopter Squadron 364
Aircraft Group 39
3rd Marine Aircraft Wing
I Marine Expeditionary Force
Camp Pendleton, California
Capt. Jennifer Harris of Swampscott, Massachusetts was an overachiever who graduated Swampscott High School in 1996 bound for the Naval Academy. She won the Neil and Jeffrey Rossman Scholarship and a Swampscott Parent-Teacher Council Scholarship, both presented at her high school graduation in 1996. Jennifer took something important from Swampscott High School with her to the U.S. Naval Academy: She organized a "Toys for Local Children" group at Annapolis, modeling it after the one started by a Swampscott High School teacher in 1984. She also sent annual checks to the local group. She got training then in Quantico, Va., Pensacola, Fla., and Corpus Christi, Texas, before being assigned to the Marine base at Camp Pendleton in California. Harris was assigned to HMM-364,the "Purple Foxes," a storied Marine squadron with a history that pre-dates the Vietnam War, the era when the CH-46 helicopter, also called the "Phrog," was first introduced. She finished her training as a helicopter pilot at the end of 2002 and then was assigned to Iraq to fly helicopters carrying both supplies and troops from bases in Iraq to Kuwait and back again. Her first tour was from February to October in 2003. Then she got a year off before returning to Iraq in January 2005, coming home in September to California and then Swampscott. She was 28.
Marines
Medium Helicopter Squadron 364
Aircraft Group 39
3rd Marine Aircraft Wing
I Marine Expeditionary Force
Camp Pendleton, California
Marines
Medium Helicopter Squadron 364
Aircraft Group 39
3rd Marine Aircraft Wing
I Marine Expeditionary Force
Camp Pendleton, California
