J. Harrison “”Harry”” Mangan Sr., 89, a highly decorated Air Force colonel who retired in 1965 and began a second career painting watercolors and teaching art, died April 21, 2009, at Falcons Landing military retirement community in Potomac Falls. He had bladder cancer. Col. Mangan’s military career began in 1938 when he joined the Army Air Corps and soon became a pilot. During World War II, he received the Silver Star for actions during aerial combat against Japanese fliers while participating in a flying mission from Australia to the Philippines. According to the citation, he and a group of other fliers covered more than 4,000 miles of open sea during the expedition and destroyed “”many enemy transports, airplanes and ground installations.”” In the 1950s, Col. Mangan was a Strategic Air Command pilot. His final active-duty assignment was at the Pentagon. Besides the Silver Star, his military decorations included the Legion of Merit and the Distinguished Flying Cross. James Harrison Mangan was a native of Nogales, Ariz., and a graduate of The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. He received a master’s degree in international affairs from George Washington University in 1963 and was a graduate of the Army and Air Force command and staff schools as well as the Air War College. Soon after retiring, he turned his artistic hobby into a second career and worked for area framing shops. He was a former president of the Professional Picture Framers Association’s Washington area chapter and a member of the Virginia Watercolor Society. He won prizes for his paintings in local shows and taught water coloring in Arlington County adult-education classes and at Falcons Landing. He was a docent at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and a member of the Order of Daedalians military pilots fraternity. His other memberships included the Army-Navy Country Club. His wife, Margaret Spears Mangan, whom he married in 1942, died in 2008. Survivors include three sons, James H. Mangan Jr. of Richmond, J. Marshall Mangan of London, Ontario, and Michael H. Mangan of Arlington; and four grandchildren. Tags: 1940
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