FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. – Like many soldiers, Lt. Col. Patrick Harkins has a veteran father who knows firsthand the stress of wartime deployments. One big difference is Harkins’ dad led the very same unit of paratroopers known as the Iron Rakkasans into combat decades earlier.
While the military has long had family legacies – and featured them prominently in Father’s Day celebrations – the Harkinses’ achievements stand out. Capt. Charles Emmons, a spokesman for the brigade, said it appears to be the first time a father and son have commanded the same unit decades apart.
Patrick Harkins, 41, has led the 3rd Battalion of the 187th Infantry Regiment into combat in Iraq and Afghanistan four times since Sept. 11, 2001. His father, retired Col. Bob Harkins, led the same regiment four decades ago in Vietnam during Operation Apache Snow, more commonly known as the Battle of Hamburger Hill.
“It’s a really unique situation,” Emmons said.
The family legacy reaches back to World War II. Patrick Harkins’ brother, Army Lt. Col. Gregory Harkins, 43, is stationed in Italy.
Bob Harkins, 71, is proud his sons followed in his footsteps, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t worry about the pair, who requested they not serve together.
“I told them if they ever got hurt, I’d kick their butts,” Bob Harkins said. “Do I worry about them? Absolutely.”
For Patrick Harkins, the military seemed like a natural fit after seeing his father spend decades as a soldier and “the fun side” of the Army that “looked cool as a kid,” such as seeing his dad in uniform and shooting large weapons during training exercises.
Patrick Harkins, who said he wouldn’t require his own children to join the military, said his father told him and his brother that they needed to engage in some kind of public service, but it didn’t have to be the Army.
The unit earned its nickname from a Japanese translator after World War II who couldn’t immediately come up with the word for airborne unit so called them “rakkasan,” or “falling down umbrella men.” Paratroopers drop into areas not easily accessible by land or to avoid enemy fortifications, sometimes in advance of land forces also fighting in the battle.
The Rakkasans have received multiple unit citations for their service in every war since World War II.
Father and son have worked together to organize reunions of the soldiers who fought at Hamburger Hill and use the Vietnam veterans to assist current soldiers in dealing with the stresses of military life and time in combat.
It’s their way of extending the military family idea to soldiers who may need someone who can relate to their experiences.
