His was not a flight of fancy.

Taking off and landing safely is part of the process to become a UFO. In this case, UFO stands for United Flying Octogenarians, as opposed to the more familiar unidentified flying object.

Harrison, by making a safe flight on or after his 80th birthday, complied with the bulk of membership requirements for the little-known organization.

With membership of more than 600 men and women, UFO had its beginnings in 1982 as an international, non-profit organization.

Harrison, who has an extensive flying career in the U.S. Army and earned numerous flight hours as a civilian pilot, has loved flying for most of his life.

In 1946, at age 17, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving about four years as an enlisted man. He got his commission and spent much of his time after that trying to get into flight school, finally reaching his goal in 1957.

“I sent in five different applications over a period of five years and took three different flight physicals,” he said. “Finally, after I had been commissioned for seven years, I went to flight school.”

He said by that time he already had his private pilot’s license, a calculated move on his part.

“The reason I got my private pilot’s license was because I always had a tendency to get airsick,” he said. “And I figured if I got airsick in flight school, if I could prove that I could pass the FAA flying standards, maybe they would give me another chance.”

Harrison said he got sick numerous times during Army flight training, but it did not seem to affect him adversely.

“I was flabbergasted to find that I had graduated No. 1 from flight school,” he said after he completed training in 1958.

In 1963 he was assigned to be evaluator and test designer during air assault testing from 1963 to 1965.

He explained that just before that, the Army did a study that recommended more use of air mobility, a tactic that became heavily used in Vietnam.

In 1966, he served in Vietnam and commanded the 10th Combat Aviation Battalion with 144 aircraft, 300 pilots and 1,800 enlisted men.

He went back in 1970 and commanded the 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division during the last major U.S. Army offensive campaign called Texas Star around Fire Base Ripcord near the Ashau Valley.

He said he had a number of close calls while in Vietnam, including having to take off nearly blind in his helicopter after picking up downed helicopter crew members who had tear gas on themselves when they crashed.

Among many assignments, Harrison served two years on Fort Hood, which is how he eventually wound up in the Central Texas area when he retired after 28 years of commissioned service and four years of enlisted service.

He then became a consultant based in the Belton area for the next 29 years. He retired from that career about 10 years ago.

Throughout his army and civilian careers, Harrison has not been able to stay out of airplanes and helicopters.

“I kept flying during all this time,” he said. “I just love to fly - period.”

Since becoming a civilian he has had four different airplanes, including a sleek, pressurized twin-engine Aerostar. But retirement from his civilian job resulted in a change of transportation.

“When I gave up consulting I used a smaller airplane - a Maule - a fat-winged slow airplane,” he said. “Not as fast, not as much fun, but safe.”

Nowadays, he says, he mainly flies when on hunting trips or visiting family and friends with his wife, enjoying each day in peace after a military career full of near misses.

“I’ve been very, very lucky - good genes and good luck,” he said. “I’ve never spent a night in a hospital, never had a major problem. I’ve had lots of close calls in Vietnam, but I made it out.”