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SOFREP marks the passing on January 26 of Harry M. Beal at the young age of just 90. Harry Beal resided in Greenville Township Pennsylvania. He grew up in Mayersville PA, southeast of Pittsburgh in the 1940s. His father was a coal miner and wanted young Harry to take up that trade as well. Instead, Harry enlisted in the Navy in 1948, attended boot camp in Great Lakes IL, and rated as a Gunner’s Mate on the Destroyer Tender USS Shenandoah.
He was incredibly fit, able to do a pull up with just one arm. Seeking a bit more excitement out of his enlistment, he even got it in his head to join the Flying Wallendas, a famous family performing highwire stunts in the circus. Harry wrote them a letter describing his physical abilities. They responded telling him that if what he claimed he could do was actually true, they would give him top billing. But his dreams of performing in the circus on the highwire were dashed when the Korean War began and the Navy involuntarily extended the enlistments of sailors.