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VX-5 Story - Meeting Harry

September 5, 2022
I arrived at VX-5 in the beginning of 1985. Shortly after, I was in the process of getting things squared away and noticed Harry had custody of one my best sources for quick answers. After receiving several unsolicited warnings about Harry, I set off to find him. He was at his desk, head down, poring through some documents when I announced my presence. This is a true rendition of our first conversation.
SS: Hi sir, I'm LT Shuman the new intel guy.
HS: (inaudible)
SS: I'm looking forward to supporting all the projects. 
HS: (murmurs something)
SS: I noticed you have a pub I need. If you need something from it, you can just call me. So, I need the pub back.
HS: No. (he looks me for first time)
However, I prevailed under the proviso that he could have the pub back if he didn't like the support. I kept the pub.
I only found out about our loss today. I feel gutted to be honest. Harry has been gone for a good time now, but in my life only for a day.

With Harry at 3D MAW, '98 to '00

December 23, 2013

I did not have the good fortune to serve with Harry every day untill 1998 when he was the CO of MACG-38 and I was the AWC of the Wing.  I knew of him by reputation from his time and great work at VX-5 and the TSG. From afar, I respectedd and admired him, as did so many of us at MAWTS-1, VX-4, VX-5, VFA-125, and the then emerging Strike University, later to become Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center in Fallon.  We were doing things that still cannot be spoken of outside of a SCIF and Harry, Mini, Drifty, and a small ultra talented group were leading the way and facilitating it all.  There is a photo on this site of the three of them and Snapper, all of whom I know well.  There is more G2 in that one photo than in most large cities and they did more than we'll ever know for the country. There are many reasons that Harry was part of all that, he was just amazing at getting the right things done in the days we were fighting the Cold War.  

I was privleged to work directly with him when he and I were assigned to 3D MAW, me as the AWC and he as the MACG-38 CO.  In those days the Marine Aviation Command and Control System (MACCS) community was very unappreciated and little understood by many Marine aviators, even senior ones, and the vital role of the MACCS agencies and the system as a whole was generally undervalued and sub optimized in the Marine Corps and Joint world.  

One of the memories I have of Harry is how he went after the aviators to turn that around, to energize the community, lift the morale and feelings of belonging and contributing among not only his Marines and Sailors at MACG-38 but in the entire MACCS community.  And he did it as only he could, with his laser-like intellect that understood at an elemental level the most complex and intractable challenges, with his uncanny radar for understanding people, and patience and practiced wisdom steadily applied until really big things happened for the better.  

The Wing was very involved in Operation Southern Watch in Iraq at the time, we planned and executed named operations and Harry and his folks were front and center in it all, changing the way we thought and acted as Marine aviators, as a MACCS, MAGTF warfighters and Joint warfighters.  It created ways of thinking and operating that were transmitted to the future, making our accomplishments in Operation Iraqi Freedom possible and no doubt saved many, many young lives.

And there is more, Harry helped change his world for the better. 

Harry always did the right things, in the right ways, for the right reasons, professionally and personally.  He had an internal GPS for those things that was infallible, like a laser.  It's difficult to write or think about Harry without feeling incredibly sad that he is no longer with us, it is such a loss.  

Here's what I think Harry would tell us about life:

Do the right thing.  Do the right thing.  We don't always know exactly what that is, but we can figure it out.  Figure it out and then do it.

Follow the Golden Rule.

Always do your best.

Never give up.

That's how Harry lived his life.  I'll try harder to do the same.  God bless him and keep him. Shadow

Fly Fishing with Harry

December 21, 2013

Like many of you I have lots of good Harry stories.  One of my favorites is when Harry taught me to fly fish.  As many of you know, Harry loved the outdoors and fly fishing.  He loved its ruggedness, solitude and challenge.  When I traveled with him he often had his Fly Rod with the carry-on luggage even though our trip was fully booked with meetings and we were in suits.  I would joke with him and ask if he was hoping that when our plane “crashed,” it would be near some yet to be discovered world class trout stream.  He would just smile and say, “you never know,” and continue to board.  That was Harry; he never felt opportunity was far away even in the worst of situations. 

Later, I asked Harry if he would teach me to fly fish.  For the uninitiated, that was like asking if he would allow me to take the vows of the fly fishing priesthood.  Or maybe as an adult ask a Major Leaguer to teach you how to play catch.  After some persistence, he finally agreed and off we went to Bishop, CA.   We decided to go in the RV I owned at the time, and we spent hours on the road solving the world’s problems.  All of us who had that one on one time with Harry recognized that you were with someone special.  Not perfect, but someone rare among our friends.  It is those moments and the wisdom of those conversations that I will always remember.

We started to fish surrounded by quickly melting snowflakes most of the day, and caught enough for our supper.  We cooked them over an open fire and then as the temperature dropped with the approach of nightfall, others crawled into their tents. We retreated to the warmth of the RV.   Harry normally would have been one of those dedicated anglers who went to a tent because that was I think, one of the rules of the “priesthood.”   As I prepared some other food, and Harry was enjoying a glass while debriefing the days events, I could tell he was also enjoying the significant contrast to his normal fishing trip accommodations.  I joked with him again and said, I don’t think I have any white wine glasses for the fish.   Harry leaned back in the chair and smiled a smile I will never forget.  He said, you know Paul, I may never go camping again and just laughed.  Harry was fun.    

Power Ten

December 21, 2013
by K Spies

The Power Ten, Inc. family celebrates the life of our founder and Chairman, Col. Harry C. Spies, USMC (Ret). Harry left us after a valiant fight with cancer on Monday, December 16th, 2013 at the age of 61.

Harry was an incredible husband, father, mentor, friend, Marine, scholar and businessman who had an incredible network of friends. He was fiercely brave and passionate about what he believed in, and he earned a loyal following of people who loved and respected him. To say that he will be missed is an understatement.

Harry founded Power Ten, Inc. with a singular focus on enabling great people to do great work. For Harry, it was always about the people he served, which included both his customers and the members of Power Ten. Harry never liked the word employee, and he refused to use it when speaking of Power Ten, Inc.! To him, everyone in the organization had the opportunity to make the most of their position in the company, and so deserved a better title. His legacy lives on with Power Ten, Inc.

The Spies Family has a webpage devoted to Harry where friends and associates are welcome to post tributes, photos, and stories celebrating his life: http://www.forevermissed.com/harryspies. Details for memorial services will be posted there, when available.

Thank you, Harry, for every single minute you spent with us, thinking about us, teaching us, pushing us, lifting us up, and above all, caring about us.


http://www.powerteninc.com/2013/12/power-ten-inc-celebrates-the-life-of-its-founder-and-chairman-harry-c-spies/ 

Cousins

December 19, 2013

.Harry was a year younger than me...our Fathers are brothers. ..Those are our mothers looking on in the background. This was taken in the basement of Grandma & Grandpa Spies' house in Clifton, NJ.
 

Last A-6 WestPac Tour

December 19, 2013

T-Shirt from last A-6 WestPac Tour in 1992. VMA(AW)-224, VMFA-323, VMAQ-2(Det) JO's created T-Shirt after a certain "bar walking incident" at the MCAS Iwakuni O'Club. Created to try and confuse the base leadership that "another out of town squadron" was at fault. 

Harry At His Finest

December 18, 2013

Yeah. I could tell a story or two about Harry.

So in late 1989 or early 1990, a young Soviet MiG-29 pilot (we'll call him "Yuri"), assigned to an air defense squadron on the periphery of the Soviet Union, baked a cake full of sleeping pills, drugged his squadron mates, got into a gunfight with a flightline (is that hyphenated?) guard (and was wounded in the shoulder), commandeered a fully-armed alert FULCRUM and flew it to a NATO country with about three or four FLANKERs in hot pursuit, intending to defect to the US and hand over the plane to us for exploitation. He landed at a civilian airport on a national holiday and eventually surrendered himself - probably to a mailman or DHL delivery guy - I don't remember. He was granted political asylum here in the States although the NATO ally returned the plane to the Soviets.

A joint debriefing team was convened and Harry (in his original call-sign - for those of you who remember), then assigned to OP-07, represented Marine aviation. Jan Dundas (then known as STRUTS) was the Navy rep and an unnamed individual or two represented another (unnamed) service with keen interest in Soviet tactical aviation. At the time, I was the XO of the IC component responsible for "Yuri's" debriefing, care and eventual resettlement.

Word eventually got back to us that the debriefing had come unglued so I went out to take a look. The other, unnamed service had gotten itself totally wrapped around the axle trying to force the poor kid to admit that he had been sent to the US to screw up our intel picture of Soviet aviation. Harry and Jan were soldiering on, trying to gleen whatever nuggets they could from him in between inquisition sessions by the other service.

Let's just say that with the bashing of a couple of heads and a meeting or two at the NSC level, we managed to get things back on track. "Yuri" proved to be a source of incredible value and his resettlement seemed to be well on track. He arrived without a word of english (well, maybe one or two - explicatives, as I recall) and, with the aid of a professional Russian ESL teacher and myself explaining (in english) aviation and aerodynamics concepts, he became much more than functionally literate in English within about four or five months.

The Pentagon decided to put "Yuri" on the lecture circuit and we tasked him with developing a Powerpoint presentation explaining current Soviet tactical air combat maneuver philosophy and tactics. Harry loaned "Yuri" his then brand-new Apple laptop and showed him how to use it. Two weeks later "Yuri" had a 20 minute Powerpoint and speech ready to go and Harry arranged to have him do a dry run for Mini Mott's squadron at Andrews. Attendance was mandatory.

For a 20-something year old kid who had only just learned english, he totally hit it out of the park. Harry, Jan, Mini and I were both slack-jawed and proud as hell. "Yuri" turned the floor over for Q&A and the principal debriefer from the other (unnamed) service, and an O-6 as I recall (Harry was an O-4 then), got up and said, essentially: "Well, it's an okay first draft but on slide six, you don't hyphenate the term 'air base" (or some similar term - maybe it was "intercept angle").

Harry, who had suffered this SOB for about eight months, immediately stood up, took the floor and said: "You know, Colonel. I've got the same damn problem. I can never keep straight whether ASS-HOLE is hyphenated!" The whole place just came apart in stitches!

We have been fast friends ever since.

And they should never have made him change his call sign, because every one of us who knows Harry knows that he's only a prick if you deserve it.

Rest in peace, my brother. I will miss you.

 

USNA Story From Fred Witesman

December 18, 2013
by K Spies
We got each other into and out of trouble several times over the years... the only reason we didn't get kicked out as a result of the things we did the day this picture was taken was that we got caught by Major Jones (USMC F4 Pilot) who was the OOD that day - Marine Protection Society.

The Hook, Summer 2011

December 18, 2013
by K Spies

Service to country for the Spies family began with Harry R. Spies who served with 1st Marine Division (MarDiv) in World War II in the Pacific (June 1942– October 1945) and later Korea (October 1947 – July 1952). He received a Silver Star for actions at the Chosen Reservoir with then-Capt Robert H. Barrow (later Gen Barrow, Commandant of the Marine Corps) as an infantryman and was medically retired at TSgt.

Harry C., son of Harry R., began his service in June 1970 at the U.S. Naval Academy. He was commissioned in the U.S. Marine Corps as a 2ndLt. in June 1974. He received his Naval Flight Officer designation in December 1975 and reported to VMAT(AW)-202 for training as an A-6 bombardier/navigator. During his initial service Col Spies, USMC(Ret) served in VMA(AW)-121, 2/7 1st MarDiv, VMA(AW)-242, 3rd Marine Air Wing (MAW) as the commanding general’s aide, VMA(AW)-121, U.S. Naval Test Pilot School (USNTPS) (Class 84, receiving the Outstanding Developmental Phase II Award sponsored by the Empire Test Pilot School), VX-5 Chief Operational Test Director (COTD) and first USMC COTD and OpNav-07/Technical Support Group. He then returned to flight duty in VMA(AW)-224 and 3rd MAW (G3/Combat Plans) during Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm and later commanded VMA(AW)-224. Shore duties followed as a Military Fellow at Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, special assistant for USMC matters, Office of the Secretary of Defense and Assistant Secretary of Defense, Strategy and Threat Reduction, Commander, Marine Aviation Control Group-38, 3rd MAW as assistant wing commander and G3. Col Spies logged over 2,500 hours — 1,500+ hours in the A-6 and more than 1,000 hours in 21 other aircraft including TA-7, F-5, F-16, F-14, F/A-18B/D, S-3, OH-58, OV-1, AH-1S/T/W and OV-10A/D. He is currently a rated private pilot. Col. Spies retired in 2001.

Capt Katherine L. Spies, USMC, daughter of Harry C., has continued the Naval Aviation tradition. Graduating from the University of Southern California with a bachelor of science in chemical engineering, she was commissioned a 2ndLt. in May 2004. After completing The Basic School, she reported to Pensacola, Fla. to begin Introductory Flight Training and Aviation Preflight Indoctrination. She finished basic flight training with the 33rd Flying Training Squadron flying T-37s at Vance AFB and received her Wings of Gold in August 2006 at HT-8, NAS Whiting Field. Capt Spies then reported to HMLA/T-303 in September for training as an AH-1W pilot. Upon completion in March 2007, she reported to HMLA-267. While assigned to HMLA-267, Capt Spies was deployed with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) and then the 31st MEU. Capt Spies is currently in Afghanistan with HMLA-267. She has logged 1,070 total hours — 99 in the T-37, 130 hours in the TH-57, 832 in the AH-1W. She also has 168 hours using night-vision goggles. Capt Spies has been selected for USNTPS, class 142, commencing January 2012.

Also of note, Jeanie Spies, spouse of Harry C., serves Sailors and Marines as the director of the Navy Marine Corps Relief Society at MCAS Miramar. Allison Spies, another daughter, serves at the Naval Medical Hospital, San Diego, C5 GAIT Laboratory, and Christina Spies, their daughter-in-law, is a program manager at Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Va.

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