By Danny Teigman
One of East Rockaway's own has earned a Purple Heart in combat, and will return home from Iraq by way of his base in Oahu, Hawaii later this month. Marine Cpl. Adam Harrison, 22, is recovering from leg wounds he suffered when his barracks came under attack.
On Sept. 11, one minute before a bell sounded on the TV coverage of ceremonies commemorating the fifth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, Adam's mother, Diana Harrison, got a phone call. "I knew it was from him," she said. "I thought he was calling me to comfort me because of the difficult day." It was 8:45 a.m., and just as Harrison picked up the phone, it disconnected.
At 8:46, it rang again. Adam was calling with some news. "I've been injured," he said. He explained that he had hurt his legs, but his wounds weren't life threatening. "And then I just fell to pieces," Diana said. She called her husband, Mark, and when he came home they cried together, mostly relieved that their son was going to be all right.
Earlier that day, Adam's barracks in the western Iraqi city of Barwannah had come under mortar attack while the watch officer was conducting pre-combat checks. "We heard the first mortar explode, so we ran into the barracks," he recounted in an e-mail to the Herald. "Our barracks had a courtyard, and our room was on the other side of it. As we were running to it, the second [mortar] hit on the roof, right at the corner, where we could see it. Just as I was running through the doorway, the third hit inside the courtyard on the wall behind us, spraying us with metal. I was just the unlucky one who was last to get into the room."
Harrison said he realized he was injured only after he noticed he was bleeding. He described getting hit with four pieces of shrapnel as feeling like bee stings. "I felt a lot of pressure in my right leg from the knee down," he said. "I just couldn't stand." Harrison said the shrapnel hit the nerves in his leg, which also caused a feeling of numbness.
A few months after Harrison graduated from East Rockaway High School in 2002, he joined the Marines' Third Battalion. "Adam was very quiet in school," said the high school's principal, William Fortgang. "I knew he was very much looking forward to joining the armed services when he was here. He was very respectful in his dealings with me."
Harrison said he had distant relatives who had served in the military before, but he was the first in his immediate family. His younger brother, Evan, 19, was the second, and is also a Marine, now in training in Virginia in reconnaissance - the so-called "first of the first" to go into a combat situation.
Adam spent seven and a half months in Afghanistan before being deployed to Iraq. He chose to re-enlist with friends he had met there, and they have served together for four years. When asked why he joined the military, his joking e-mail response was, "Maybe I just watched too many movies." He chose the Marines because, he said, they are "the best."
His mother is thankful that with the many difficult days her son has been through, she learns of the specifics after the fact. Otherwise, she said, knowledge of the day-to-day incidents would be too much for her to bear. "I take it one day at a time," she said. "And I don't think too far into the future. Denial works well." She said she is proud of her budding military family, but would have preferred that Adam had gone to college instead. "It's a lot safer," she said. "But he knows what he doesn't want to do - and he knows what he does want to do."
Adam said that once his tour of duty is up on Dec. 6, he will take some time off and re-adjust to civilian life. He hopes to start college next fall, and though he isn't sure what he might study, he describes himself as a history buff.
Despite his injuries and a now more realistic perspective on military service, he said his experience has been worthwhile. "I still [have] a great feeling of pride for being a part of the Marine Corps," he said.
Harrison was awarded the Purple Heart on at a military ceremony at his base in Hawaii Oct. 12. He is expected to make a full recovery.
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