Lieutenant Colonel Steve Harrington was born in Brooklyn
and moved to West Babylon in 1952. He left for Colorado
Springs on June 27, 1965, and entered the United States
Air Force Academy. He graduated from the Academy on
June 4, 1969, with the rank of Second Lieutenant. He
married Jane DeMusis (Class of ’65) on June 15, 1969 and began Undergraduate Pilot Training at Laughlin AFB in Del Rio, Texas.
After graduation he was assigned to Dyess AFB in Abilene, Texas to fly the C-130 military aircraft. He flew missions in the United States, Europe, The Middle East and Africa for the next six years. During one mission, as the aircraft commander, his plane lost power to all four engines. Captain Harrington was able to restart one, then two more engines. His actions saved a multi-million-dollar aircraft and the lives of the 13 crew members.
In 1976 he was assigned to the Berlin Air Safety Center in West Berlin representing United States interests with British, French and Russia Officers.
In 1980, he was assigned to Pope AFB in Fayetteville, North Carolina. After the failed rescue of the Iranian hostage in 1980, the Air Force began a C-130 Special Operations unity. Steve was an “initial cadre” of this unit and instrumental in setting up and training pilots. He was the highest-ranking Special Operation pilot at Poe AFB and, as such, was chosen to brief Secretary of
Defense Casper Weinberger on his visit to the base.
He was assigned to the 310th Military Airlift Squadron in Panama in 1988, at a time of great unrest in Latin America. His missions in Panama were highly classified and was directed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and National Command Authority (Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney and President George H.W. Bush).
He remained in Special Operations for the next eleven years until retirement, at which time he continued his flying career with Delta Air Lines.
Steve and Jane now live on the coast of North Carolina, where Steve plays several rounds of golf every week, enjoys reading, walks with his dog, and getting to spend time with his two daughters, Kathie and her partner Jennifer, and Joanna and her husband Shawn…and spoiling granddaughter Hunter and grandsons Dow and Ryan.
With all his accomplishments, one that is Steve’s most memorable is the 1964 Eagles football first League championship which is celebrating its 60th Anniversary this fall.