Forrest & Clayton Harte
Naples brothers leave a legacy
August 21st, 2013, by Pat Tomberlain, posted in the Texarkana Gazette.
History is sometimes very personal for Pat Tomberlain, the popular Atlanta High instructor now retired after 30 years of teaching history.
His latest lesson is that of his two first cousins, Clayton and Forrest Harte of the Naples area, and their World War II story.
“My purpose in sharing this story is simply because I think these and other heroes need to be remembered,” Tomberlain said.
Clayton and Forest Harte were brothers who, at almost the same 18 years of age, signed up quickly to defend this country in World War II.
One returned. One did not.
Both joined the Army Air Corps. Clayton was selected to fly the new P-38 Lightning but then died in a training accident here in the states.
Forrest became a B-26 Marauder bomber pilot. When he survived and finished his first 30 combat missions, he could have rotated to a non-combat job. But he chose to stay and do another 30.
“I want to do the ones my brother didn’t get to do,” he would later tell his family.
He completed 69 missions. 
On many occasions, the B-26 Forrest piloted was riddled with bullets and flak. Once, upon landing, every crew member had some injury.
On another occasion, Forrest’s plane was damaged, lost altitude and contact with the others. With the plane long overdue and reported down with no survivors, personnel back at the base cleaned out Forrest’s locker.
But Forrest’s plane struggled and then returned. He put his locker things back.
First cousin Pat Tomberlain grew up knowing Forrest well. As a historian, he knew a lot about his family and the war. Forrest occasionally came to give talks to Tomberlain’s high school classes.
“I think,” Tomberlain says today, “that Forrest deeply felt the loss of his brother all the rest of his life. But nearly everyone lost a friend or family member in the war. That was just the way it was. And you honored all those who didn’t return as if they were a member of your family. Clayton was both to Forrest.”
The two brothers grew up near Tomberlain’s grandparents, the Vissering’s farm and ranch near Naples. They were 13 months apart in age.
“I heard stories of Clayton riding his saddle horse to sell the Grit newspaper, I did the same thing 20 years later,” Tomberlain said. “But by then I had a bicycle to ride some of the time.”
“Clayton and Forrest knew all about these times. The Great Depression hit those families to the fullest. They grew up in harder and hotter times.”
Both academically talented, Forrest, in public school, was put up a grade so he could be in the same class with Clayton.
They graduated together and enrolled at John Tarleton State College in Stephenville in 1940. They completed the first year and were halfway through the second when Pearl Harbor was attacked.
“Forrest felt war was inevitable,” Tomberlain said. “He knew Russia was losing and only England would be left. He wanted to learn about airplanes, so in October, he dropped out to work in the aviation industry.
“Clayton wanted to stay in school until the end of the semester. Then December 7 came and that settled that. In January he joined his brother. They both joined the Air Corps.”
Forrest’s parents had to sign permission because he was still too young.
Earlier, Naples’ native and U.S. Sen. Morris Sheppard after returning from Nazi Germany in 1938, had warned about the strength of the German air force as compared with America’s, and he advocated modernization.
The two boys had likely heard this discussion when Sheppard visited with the local families. They wanted to fly.
Being in corps of cadets at Tarleton, the two already had some military training and so qualified for commissions. After several different phases of training with the Air Corps, they were separated.
Clayton was assigned to the 110th Recon Squadron, 71st Recon Group, for fighter pilot training. He was one of the first chosen to be trained to fly the new P-38 Lightning, a twin-engine bomber that could fly 400 mph.
But he was killed in a training crash at Laurel, Miss., Aug. 28, 1943.
“It was said the pilot before him had made a hard landing, possibly breaking a wing bolt. When Clayton led his group into a bank and dive attack, the right wing folded over his cockpit and he could not bail out,” Tomberlain said.
Forrest trained with the 442nd Squadron, 320th Bomb Group. His missions were over North Africa, Italy and Southern France.
He rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel by age 24, which was unusual for this age but perhaps not unique since the ranks of military personnel were thin, Tomberlain said.
“He was good at what he did,” Tomberlain said. After the war, Forrest spoke in 2001 at the commissioning ceremony for the Tomberlains’ son, Tom.
Here at home Forrest worked at the Lone Star Steel and lived to be almost 81 before passing away in 2003. In early 1950s, the American Legion Hall in Naples was named the Clayton Harte American Legion Hall.
Both brothers are buried in the Vissering Cemetery at Old Wheatville near the Vissering farm and ranch.
The Harte boys’ mother was Irene Vissering Harte. Her sister was Rose Vissering Tomberlain. Both are buried in the family cemetery as well.
The boys’ parents, Jonah and Irene Harte, had four children who were Clayton, Ikey, Carolyn and Forrest.
“Forrest and Clayton were close, but Forrest lost so many of his friends. There were so many in his bomber squadron who didn’t make it back,” Tomberlain said of the history lesson and yet personal memory he has.
