SWAMPSCOTT — Ray Harris, a Swampscott resident and retiree from General Electric (GE), lost his daughter in 2007 while she was serving in Iraq, making him a Gold Star Father. Marine Captain Jennifer Harris died during Operation Iraqi Freedom after a helicopter she was piloting was shot down.
To pay tribute to his daughter, Ray Harris has a Marine Corps flag on the front of his house, but the flagpole is not in great shape. Members from the GE Veterans Network surprised him on Tuesday with a brand new pole and Marine Corps flag.
“GE Veterans Network is a group of GE employees who have a passion for helping military families or military related causes,” said Patrick Burke, a supply chain planner at GE and a co-leader of the Veterans Network in Lynn. “[Harris] deserves and Jennifer deserves a better flagpole. So, GE Volunteer Council funded the flagpole, and the GE Veterans Network is over here at Mr. Harris’s house today, and we’re digging a hole and we’re going to put up a beautiful flag.”
Along with neighbors and other representatives from GE, neighborhood kids arrived via school bus to watch the pole and flag go up. Burke and and other Network members dug a hole and poured in cement. After the flagpole was cemented into the ground, a new Marine Corps flag was raised.
“[Harris] just keeps saying, ‘Oh God, I’m thankful,’ and you know, I just told him, ‘Jennifer would do it for any of us,’ and he’d do it for us too,” Burke said.
Harris said the new pole and flag are beautiful.
“I just appreciate everybody doing that,” Harris said. “What they did was wonderful.”
Jennifer would be “so happy,” he said, to see what everyone is doing for him. He said he has experienced a lot of loss in his life, and it is very hard for him, but he has supportive people surrounding him.
“I have wonderful, wonderful neighbors that have been helping me out,” Harris said. “I just don’t know how to thank all the people. They just keep doing things and doing things and doing things.”
