John Langston Harrison, Jr. was born in December 1920 in Topeka, Kansas. He was raised in Osage City, Kansas and Omaha, Nebraska. His father worked as a school teacher, but he passed away when Harrison was a baby so he never got to know him. He was raised by his grandmother who had been a slave, freed when she was 26 years old. Slavery was never talked about in his presence, so he never got any information about that part of her life. His uncle had a good-sized farm with horses, cows, hogs, geese, and chicken, and as a child, Harrison did little jobs like feeding and watering the animals. His uncle paid him 75 cents a month for completing those tasks. His uncle was a father figure to him, and told Harrison the he could do anything that any other man could do. He had a positive mindset that he has used all throughout his life. Hearing about his uncle's life traveling as a cowboy and wheat harvester instilled a sense of wanderlust in Harrison. He thinks that is why he ended up making more than 30 crossings of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and flying around the world. When Harrison was a young man in December 1941, Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] happened. He had been following world news and was worried about Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] taking over Holland and other parts of the world. He knew a war would be coming. The day after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] declared war on Japan [Annotator's Note: Day of Infamy Speech; President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a Joint Session of the United States Congress, 8 December 1941], and five months later, in May 1942, Harrison went to the recruiting office in Omaha. He told the sergeant there that he wanted to be a fighter pilot and shoot down Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] to which the sergeant responded, "We do not train you people [Annotator's Note: meaning African-American people] to be pilots". Harrison said they did, and had a picture of the Tuskegee pilots [Annotator's Note: a group of primarily African-American military pilots and airmen who fought in World War 2, trained at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama]. Harrison was thrown out of the recruiting office. He was a young man who wanted to train and fight for his country, and that was the reception he got. Two weeks later, he went back and tried again and was able to fill out all of the necessary paperwork. He went in, took a test and was given a physical, acing both.

John Langston Harrison, Jr. wanted to be a pilot. In 1942, Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] was up for reelection and knew he needed the black bloc of voters to be elected. This was one of the reasons he started the Tuskegee experiment to train black pilots [Annotator's Note: the Tuskegee Airmen were a group of primarily African-American pilots and airmen trained at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama]. Many people were opposed to it. For white men, all that was required to become a pilot was a high school diploma, but for black men, they had to have four years of college and pass a specific intelligence test. When Harrison, volunteered, the requirement had been lowered to two years of college. He was working at an aircraft plant at the time. He worked nights and went to school at the University of Omaha [Annotator's Note: in Omaha, Nebraska] during the day. He was able to ace the intelligence test in June 1942, and just waited to be sent to Tuskegee. He was sworn in on 30 June 1942 in the enlisted Reserve, and was sent home and told he would be notified when there was an opening at Tuskegee. In December, he received a letter telling him to report to Tuskegee in February. He boarded a train in Omaha to go to Alabama. The train conductor came by and told him to get off, and put him on another train car. Harrison did not know about segregation, having grown up in Nebraska. He arrived in Tuskegee for pre-flight training. He went into town once, and got a lot of hateful looks from white people. They did not know him, so he did not understand why they were looking at him like that. He never left the base again during his time there, from February to December [Annotator's Note: February to December 1943]. The training was challenging and very satisfying. Harrison had never been in an airplane before. He had wanted to be a pilot since he saw a plane flying over the fields as a child [Annotator's Note: while working on his uncle's farm]. He feels the Lord made it possible for him to become a pilot. In 1964 when he retired, he had an appointment with Pan-American and TWA airlines. The former said they did not hire "you people" [Annotator's Note: meaning African-Americans] to be pilots. TWA said they were working with Ethiopian Airlines, and could possibly find him a place there, but it did not work out. He believes God had a hand in it. If he had become a commercial pilot, he would have flown just two types of planes, but in the Air Force he was able to fly 12 different types of airplanes, such as planes with skis on them, pontoons that landed on water, and amphibious planes. During the Cold War [Annotator's Note: a period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union and the United States and their respective allies from 1945 to 1991] he was a combat commander with top secret clearance and flew tankers to refuel B-52s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber] and B-47s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-47 Stratojet strategic bomber] flying perimeter around Russia. He would not have had all of these experiences had he become a commercial pilot.

John Langston Harrison, Jr. was a detachment commander stationed 100 miles above the Arctic Circle in the late 1950s during the Cold War with Russia [Annotator's Note: a period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union and the United States and their respective allies from 1945 to 1991]. He was a major and had 31 men in his outfit. They flew SA-16s [Annotator’s Note: Grumman SA-16 Albatross amphibious aircraft], a twin-engine amphibious plane. This was in Sondrestrom, Greenland [Annotator's Note: Sondrestrom Air Base near Ravneklippen, Greenland] which the United States was leasing from Denmark. He was a MATS [Annotator's Note: Military Air Transport Service] liaison officer. The only thing they were afraid of in Greenland were polar bears.

John Langston Harrison, Jr. experienced racial prejudice throughout all of his 23 years in the service. A weaker man may have let that affect his relationships with others, but he had learned zeal from his uncle and took it in stride. When the sergeant told him they did not train "people like him" to be pilots, it rolled off his back like water from a duck. [Annotator's Note: The sergeant in question turned Harrison away from a recruiting station in 1942 when he tried to enlist as an airman, being told that African-Americans could not be pilots.] He knew what he as capable of. In 2007, 320 men [Annotator's Note: Tuskegee Airmen, African-American military pilots and airmen who fought in World War 2, trained in Tuskegee, Alabama] went to Washington, D.C. and were presented with the Congressional Gold Medal by President Bush [Annotator's Note: George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States]. Harrison wishes he could go back in time, in uniform with his major leaves and command pilot insignia, the highest rating in the Air Force, with his more than 10,000 flying hours on over 12 types of planes, and call that sergeant at the recruiting station to attention, letting him know that he was the black kid that he threw out and insulted. Harrison feels that because of the pressure on them [Annotator's Note: the Tuskegee Airmen], they formed a more cohesive group. General B. O. Davis [Annotator's Note: US Air Force General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. commanded the 99th Fighter Squadron then the 332nd Fighter Group, known as the Tuskegee Airmen; Davis was the first African-American brigadier general in the Air Force] was one of the strongest factors in the success of the Tuskegee Airmen. He attended West Point [Annotator's Note: United States Military Academy in West Point, New York] from 1932 to 1936, and was given the silent treatment to break his spirit so that he would quit and leave West Point. He was excluded from graduation festivities. The stress he went through made Davis a stern disciplinarian. On 200 escort missions, the Tuskegee Airmen never lost a single bomber.

One time, when John Langston Harrison, Jr. was a B-25 [Annotator's Note: North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber] pilot in the 477th [Annotator's Note: 477th Bombardment Group], he had gone to Myrtle Beach, North Carolina for training. While in the air doing target practice, his nose gun began firing on its own. He had to go see Colonel Davis [Annotator's Note: US Air Force General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. commanded the 99th Fighter Squadron then the 332nd Fighter Group, known as the Tuskegee Airmen; Davis was the first African-American brigadier general in the Air Force]. For three and a half years, they trained every day. No commander in the Pacific or Europe wanted black bomber pilots. They [Annotator's Note: the Tuskegee Airmen] knew this. Harrison volunteered and was ready to serve his country, and he was not being used only because of the color of his skin. To say that this did not affect them would be incorrect. Harrison is in nearly perfect health at age 91, practicing martial arts and yoga [Annotator's Note: at the time of the interview], but he knows there is some effect deep down in his body from being treated that way. [Annotator's Note: here is a break in the video until 00:53:49.]

John Langston Harrison, Jr. was able to cope and made stronger [Annotator's Note: by being underestimated by people based solely on the color of his skin]. In 1927, there was a doctor who claimed that white people were more intelligent, and black people were less intelligent. Harrison had to contend with ideas like this. Harrison knew Colonel Selway [Annotator’s Note: US Army Air Forces Colonel Robert Roy Selway, Jr.; first commanding officer of the 477th Bombardment Group]. Harrison retired as a major in the Air Force, but felt he should have been a colonel at least. He feels one of the reasons he was not promoted was that on a flight from Scotland to Labrador [Annotator's Note: Labrador, Canada], he had to fly solely using instruments as visibility was minimal. Because he was a MATS [Annotator's Note: Military Air Transport Service] pilot, he was among the most efficient pilots in the world and was able to make a blind landing. Upon landing safely, he was approached by a man in plain clothes asking him a bunch of questions which annoyed Harrison, who was exhausted. Harrison asked him what his function was, not knowing the man was a brigadier general. On the basis of Harrison questioning him, he reported Harrison for disrespecting a senior officer. He went on to kill two promotions that Harrison normally would have gotten. His commanding officer never had a conversation with him about what had happened, it was unfair. That, along with being thrown off a train [Annotator's Note: while on a train headed for Tuskegee, Alabama in 1942, Harrison was made to exit his seat on a train and move to a segregated car] were two of the most significant racial experiences in his life. While at the University of Southern California [Annotator's Note: in Los Angeles, California] training as an Air Force accident investigation officer, they were working on a G-suit, or anti-gravity suit. [Annotator's Note: portion of segment is cut out at 1:04:56, and cuts to black shortly after].