
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, August 13, 1995                   TAG: 9508140010
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV18   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PEGGY HARLESS deJESUS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HE COULD HAVE GONE HOME - UNTIL HE SAW THE MISERY OF NAGASAKI

At 23, Seaman 1st Class Richard Harless stood on the deck of one of the Navy's finest vessels, anchored off the coast of the Philippines. The war was over. Not only was the nightmare at an end, but the Navy was now saying, "Thank you. Your tour of duty is done. You can go home. Your country is proud."

The next question was how to get home. He could go to an island in the Pacific and wait for transport back to the States, or he could stay on with his shipmates until they finished their assignment and headed back to San Francisco.

What was their assignment? The word had just been sent down the ranks. They were headed to Nagasaki to pick up 10,000 Allied prisoners held in the hills above the flattened city and take them home.

Far away from home, he made his decision easily. He would do whatever he could to help put this war to rest.

Harless and his shipmates worked hurriedly to get the ship painted the peacetime color, light gray, as it raced toward the Japanese coast. Within one day they reached their destination. Were they prepared for the end of the war?

They had escorted large ships all over the Pacific. They had experienced torpedoes racing so close to the belly of their ship that they could hear the whistle over roaring engines. They had seen the Pacific battle rage in the Philippines.

Now, visiting Nagasaki, they faced the cruelest and most unbearable war had to offer.

First, they received an orientation tour of the gutted city. Then they manned centers to receive and process the men coming down the mountain. And they came: sick, malnourished, unclothed, beyond thirst, lame, unshaven, infected, fungus-ridden, being carried, crawling, eyes blackened by despair, in anguish, mere bones lightly covered with skin.

The air was heavy with suffering. Nationalities didn't matter. Harless carried them down from the caves and helped them get clothing, food, water and medical assistance. Men suffered the unspeakable, the unthinkable. He could have gone home earlier. He could run home now.

No way. At just 23, he stayed. He did whatever he could to get these 10,000 men home and out of this nightmare.

Richard Harless has been a hero all of his life. Fifty years later, as his daughter and granddaughters toured Corregidor and Japan, the enormity of his contribution is inconceivable. "Thank you" doesn't seem to say enough.

Yet that is all we know to say. Thank you, Dad, and the thousands of unsung heroes who have shaped this nation and given us our moral foundation. You are my hero.

\ After the war, Richard Harless returned to Virginia and his native Blacksburg to work as a homebuilder. Now retired, he and his wife, Jean Davis Harless, have raised five children. Daughter Peggy Harless deJesus teaches at Our Lady Queen of Peace School in Madison, Wis.

by CNB