Ernest Emery Harmon & Family
In July 1919 one of the most significant, yet lesser-known pioneers of aviation, US Army Air Corps Lt. Ernest Emery Harmon, successfully piloted the very first flight around the rim of the continental United States. The momentous ‘Round-the-Rim’ flight was closely observed across the nation, stirring front-page headlines throughout country. The flight began at Bolling Field, Washington DC and flew counterclockwise westward across the northern states, along the Pacific Coast, eastward along the Mexican border, and then across the South, returning to Bolling for a total distance of approximately 10,000 miles that were flown in 114 hours and 45 minutes. This nearly 4-month long journey was an historic achievement during the infancy of winged flight.
Shortly before Ernest E. Harmon’s ‘Round-the-Rim’ flight, his wife Harriette Alexander Harmon became an aviator of sorts as the first woman to fly as a passenger on an airplane, which was piloted by her husband from Washington D.C. to New York City on May 30, 1919.
Years later, Ernest and Harriette’s oldest son, Col. William A. Harmonserved in the U.S. Air Force and flew the B-24 Liberator over Italy during World War II. Their youngest son, Ernest E. Harmon Jr.graduated from George Washington University Medical School and was an intern for the US Navy Reserve. He later became a Captain in the USAF as a flight surgeon during the Korean War.
The Harmon’s middle son, Robert Brooks Harmon was born in February 1920, shortly after his father’s ‘Round-the-Rim’ flight. Robert was a patent attorney who married Elaine Danforth Harmon in 1941. Elaine attended the University of Maryland and while there she learned to fly at the College Park Airport through the Civilian Pilot Training Program. After earning her pilot’s license and graduating from the University, Elaine learned of the need for women pilots to provide support for the war effort in 1943.
She applied for the USAAF women’s flight training program and was accepted into the Women Airforce Service Pilots. After graduating in WASP Class 44-W-9, Elaine was assigned to Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas.
After her service with the WASP, Lt. Elaine Harmon was an active member of the post-war WASP organization in the 1970s, and she was instrumental in seeing that the WASP, receive their long overdue veteran’s status in 1977.
Additionally, Elaine was present in the Oval Office when President Barack Obama signed S.614 awarding the WASP the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009.
Elaine’s younger sister, Jean Danforth Thompson was a stewardess for TWA early in life. However, later in her life, Jean was inspired by her older sister to learn to fly and she went on to earn her private pilot’s license. In a 1992 poem entitled ‘Wingprints’, Jean wrote, ‘’When I decided to fly, I didn’t think of the sky as a man’s world. I thought of it as my sister’s world. Her wingprints in the sky gave me the courage to fly.’’
In the 1960s, Elaine’s daughter, Terry Harmon felt the pull to serve her country, but in a different capacity than her mother; Terry served with the Red Cross in the Supplemental Recreational Activities Overseas unit in Vietnam.
There were several compelling reasons why Terry volunteered to serve.
She recounted, “I suppose first was the inspiration of my mother, a Woman Airforce Service Pilot in WWII. Vietnam was on our minds. My friends were being drafted. When I graduated from college I was already aware of three friends/schoolmates who had died serving in Vietnam. My mother had found a way to serve her country during war, and I was looking for a way to serve mine.’’ Terry also cited how she was inspired by John F. Kennedy’s powerful words in his January 20, 1961 Inaugural Address,
‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.’ Terry said, “It was patriotism. There were protests, and the press reporting was conflicting and incomplete. I wanted to understand the war and the sacrifices. I was looking for a way to be engaged. I was looking at options of joining the military, but positions for women in Vietnam were limited. Then, I read an article about the SRAO program in my sorority magazine. I contacted the Red Cross, applied, and was accepted.”
Over a century later, the long line of Harmon aviators, and those in service, continues into the present, as noted by Terry’s brother, Bill (William A. Harmon’s namesake) who said, “In summary, three of Capt. Ernest E. Harmon’s great-grandchildren have carried on his aviation legacy.”
That legacy is carried on by Bill Harmon’s son Michael Harmon, who earned his private pilot’s wings in April 2009, and by Peggy (Harmon) Brady’s son, Lt. Cmdr. Scott Brady, an accomplished Navy helicopter pilot and instructor, who in 2024 trained to fly the C5 Galaxy airlifter.
And today, Terry’s daughter, Erin Miller is also an aviator and the proud granddaughter of WASP Lt. Elaine Harmon. Prior to Elaine’s death in 2015 at age 95, Erin’s grandmother requested that she be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery (ANC). However, after Elaine’s passing, the Harmon family was surprisingly informed that Elaine’s final request would be denied, as the Army (who runs the ANC) had at some point revoked the right of the WASP to be inurned at Arlington, citing that there was ‘limited space’. Hence, Erin and her family led a successful grassroots, social media, and direct advocacy campaign to fight the decision. The campaign culminated in the passage of HR 4336 through Congress, and the bill was signed into law by the President Obama in May 2016. Once again, the new bill recognized the wartime service of the WASP for eligibility for inurnment at Arlington National Cemetery.
Erin is the author of two books in honor of her grandmother, “Final Flight Final Fight,” which details the Arlington campaign and her life with her grandmother, while “What Grandma Did” is a children’s book based on her grandmother’s story with the WASP.
Further inspired by her grandmother, Erin earned her pilot license in April 2023, followed by her tailwheel endorsement with aerobatics instruction. In December 2024, she completed her instrument rating and is currently working on her commercial certificate. Erin then plans to get her instructor certificate in order to instruct on tailwheel airplanes.
And, indeed, like their forefather’s, ‘Round-the-Rim’ flight over a century ago, the Harmon’s have brought their family legacy of service and flight full circle.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Written by: Julia Lauria-Blum
Photos courtesy of: Harmon Family
About Julia Lauria-Blum:
Julia Lauria-Blum earned a degree in the Visual Arts at SUNY New Paltz. An early interest in women aviation pioneers led her to research the Women Airforce Service Pilots of WWII. In 2001 she curated the permanent WASP exhibit at the American Airpower Museum (AAM) in Farmingdale, NY, and later curated ‘Women Who Brought the War Home, Women War Correspondents, WWII’ at the AAM. She is the former curatorial assistant & collections registrar at the Cradle of Aviation Museum on Long Island and is currently editor-in-chief for Metropolitan Airport News.