This is the second of two interviews with Vernon Harris. The first interview covers his life and career up to the 1960s. The second interview covers his career at General Electric from the 1960s through his retirement in 1988. Topics discussed include: race relations in the US Army in WWII; experience as a Black engineer in aerospace work; secrecy and classification; attitudes towards military work during Vietnam War; relation between finance and engineering. This an edited transcript of an oral history interview of Vernon Harris conducted by Peter Westwick. Vernon Harris was an electrical engineer at General Electric in Utica, NY from 1952 to 1988. He was born on May 18th, 1926, in Washington DC and raised in Richmond, VA. He graduated high school in 1942 and studied pre-med at Virginia Union University from 1942 to 1944. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1944 and served to 1946, attaining the rank of sergeant. He trained in cryptography and served with the 387th Air Service Group, which was based with the 477th Bombardment Group (the Tuskegee airmen) at Godman Field, KY. After discharge from the Army he took night classes at Ohio State and Howard University, and then enrolled at Catholic University, graduating in 1952 with a degree in electrical engineering. He took a job at General Electric in Schenectady, NY as a test engineer on space projects, including the Hermes missile, worked briefly in GE’s large motors and generators division, and then returned to aerospace electronics, working in GE’s light military electronics department in Utica, NY. Projects he worked on included video converters and satellite data links, guidance computers on the Polaris missile and several classified spacecraft, and digital avionics on the Lockheed P-3. Later in his career he served as a recruiter of recent engineering graduates. He retired from GE in June 1988. [Object file name], Aerospace Oral History Project, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
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