Benjamin Harrison (major general)

Benjamin Leslie Harrison (July 23, 1928 – January 22, 2022) was an officer in the United States Army who contributed to the tactics of modern airmobile warfare involving the integration of helicopters with infantry and armor forces for both rapid deployment and subsequent support. General Harrison was an early advocate, theorist and practitioner of these tactics, commonly referred to as "air assault." They are analogous to the revolutionary use of armor and air support with infantry in blitzkrieg warfare in early World War II, and are critical to modern military doctrine as practiced in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

General Harrison developed basic principles and practices of "vertical envelopment" theory in the years following the Korean War to take advantage of the developments in rotary wing aircraft during the period between World War II and the Vietnam War. He was able to put those principles into practice in Vietnam, first as a combat aviation battalion commander and later as an infantry brigade commander in the 101st Airborne Division, one of the pioneer airmobile divisions, and expanded them as an advisor to commanding generals of the South Vietnamese 1st Division and the Vietnamese Airborne Division during Operation Lam Son 719.