Labor of love: Veteran established website to honor those who served
Photos from Harry Harvison's years of service in Vietnam are displayed on a mantel in his Houston home.
Harry Harvison is shown at the computer in his home, where he works on his Washington County veterans tribute website.
Stories abound about American veterans of the Vietnam War being spat upon when they appeared stateside in uniform, and some have doubted their veracity or attributed it to a reference made by the fictional movie character, Rambo.
Harry Harvison said he first experienced a version of vile treatment that involved not spittle, but flame.
On leave from basic training in 1966, he was on his way home to Canonsburg, passing through the bus station on Liberty Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh.
“I had my uniform on,” Harvison recalled in an interview earlier this fall. “A guy walked up behind me and said, ‘Your jacket’s smoldering.'”
Harvison expected to come under enemy fire while in Vietnam, but it’s not something he expected on the homefront.
A second incident punctuated his final trip home from the war. His plane landed at McChord Air Force Base, and he boarded a bus to Fort Lewis, a neighboring installation in the state of Washington.
Protesters, he said, egged the bus, then threw the contents of buckets, which caused Harvison to remark to a fellow soldier, “They’re throwing mud at us!”
The soldier replied, “That ain’t mud.”
As one who had undergone humiliation, Harvison sought a way to honor veterans, and he came up with a unique way, through the Washington County PA Veterans Memorial Association website, http://washpavets.org.
For some background information on how the website got its start, one has to look no further than – Hot Diggity, Dog Diggity – the Perry Como statue in Canonsburg. Harvison, 74, was a member of the Greater Canonsburg Heritage Society, and when that group had accomplished its mission of erecting a statue to one of the borough’s musical favorite sons in 1999, he recalled a woman gave him a copy of a 160-page yearbook-like publication dedicated to those who served in World War I titled, “Washington’s Part in the World War.”
“We were talking about something else to do,” Harvison recounted. “People said, ‘Why don’t you do something for the veterans?’ I formed a committee of veterans to do this under the auspices of the Canonsburg Heritage Society. I remembered that book.”
This being the early 21st century, a website, rather than a bound volume, became the group’s brainchild.
“I had never turned a computer on before I was 65,” Harvison said. “You take most of us old-timers. We never were on a computer.” Just behind the living room of the Houston home of Harry and Candice Harvison is a neatly organized office with his service memorabilia and the monitor and keyboard where he has performed hundreds of hours of volunteer service on the website.
His daughters and others helped him with the technology, veterans stood outside of big-box stores collecting donations to pay for the domain name and website design, and on Veterans Day 2005, the site went live with information about local veterans, some of it, sadly, culled from obituaries that appear in daily newspapers.
“Let’s say your dad was a veteran,” said Barry Grimm, Washington County’s director of veterans affairs, who helps former service members navigate the process of filing claims for benefits. “This is free and it’s local and it’s really a nice thing if you want to use it. I’m in there twice, once for the Cold War and another time for Vietnam.”
The website also is a way to recognize people who may go otherwise unrecognized. Harvison, who lost his job as a welder before volunteering for U.S. Army service in Vietnam, also honors those who spent the World War II years on the homefront as “Willy the Welder” or “Rosie the Riveter.” The site also lists veterans organizations.
The stories of an old soldier might be lost to history, but Harvison was proud to say he recently received a call from a resident of Las Vegas who was thrilled to find his grandfather’s name and service information enshrined on the Internet.
The website was affiliated with the AMVETS service organization, but, through the Internal Revenue Service, Harvison recently had it changed to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit under its current masthead.
“The technology is, like, 10 years old,” Harvison said. “I want to start updating it. I’m thinking about opening it up to membership.”
Exposed to the defoliant chemical Agent Orange in Vietnam, Harvison has suffered a host of health problems, including heart attacks and a stroke during the website’s run. His heart keeps functioning through a combination defibrillator-pacemaker device.
“I’m interested in finding someone who will at least help,” Harvison said. Anyone who heeds this veteran’s call can contact him through the website or at csharvison@comcast.net.