MORE ON JENNIFER HARRIS

Lexis-Nexis now has the transcript of the All Things Considered segment ( February 14, 2007 Wednesday) on Harris. Here are some of the statements that got my attention:

CHRIS ARNOLD: Jennifer Harris stood out, both in the Marine Corps in Iraq, where she was one of just a handful of women flying helicopters on combat rescue missions, and back in her hometown of Swampscott, Massachusetts. It's a small town on the coast north of Boston. Peter Sack(ph) was the principal of the high school when Harris went there and knew her well.

Mr. PETER SACK: You know, there are people who walk in my office and you just feel good because they're there, you know? She lit up my room, she lit up the office and she lit up this school.

ARNOLD: Harris grew up in a working-class family. In high school, she was a sailing instructor. She volunteered at the library and a local hospital. She was a class officer all four years, a top student, National Honor Society. The school gives out two good citizenship awards every year, usually to two different people. Harris won them both.

ARNOLD: Sack says unlike most teenagers, Harris always struck him as being confident and very comfortable with herself, and that stood her well when the skinny kid who played the flute in the school band grew up, starting working out, made it into the Naval Academy at Annapolis and joined the Marines.

ARNOLD: Another friend of Harris's is Navy pilot Matt Ventimilia(ph), who knew her at Annapolis. He spoke to us on his way in from the airport to help with the funeral.

Mr. MATT VENTIMILIA (United States Navy): She was so close to coming home, and she was so excited to go do what she was going to go do next and take a little break from getting shot at every day.

ARNOLD: Harris's next assignment was going to be teaching ROTC at George Washington University, though Ventimilia heard her superiors were asking her if she wanted to join the pilots that fly Marine One, the president's helicopter.

Mr. VENTIMILIA: So that just gives you an idea of, you know, the caliber of pilot she was.

ARNOLD: Ventimilia says you couldn't ask for a better friend, either.