Camera stolen from celebration honoring Marine who died in Iraq

Marine Capt. Jennifer J. Harris in a Marine Corps photo.

By Kathy McCabe, Globe Staff

Someone crashed a Marine Corps ball Saturday, swiping a camera containing hundreds of pictures of a ceremony honoring Capt. Jennifer J. Harris, a Marine who died in battle in Iraq.

Swampscott Marine veterans who attended the ball say that the pictures have sentimental value. They want the camera or, at the very least, the memory card back. And they're offering amnesty to whoever turns the pictures in.

"No questions asked," said Jim Schultz, the town veterans agent who is also a Swampscott police detective.

Harris, a helicopter pilot from Swampscott, became the first Massachusetts woman killed in combat in Iraq, when she was shot down on her final mission.

A ceremony dedicating the Marine Corps League post in Swampscott in Harris's name on Saturday was followed by the ball celebrating Harris and the 232d birthday of the Corps. The festivities were held at the Franco-American Hall on Western Avenue in the neighboring city of Lynn.

Schultz said the camera was stolen from a table, near the end of the evening, at about 11:45 p.m. He thinks the camera was likely stolen by someone who wandered in off the street.

"The photographs document the entire night," Schultz said. "We'd love to get the camera back, but if not, the memory card, so that we can have the pictures."

A professional photographer had taken pictures of the ceremony and ball for a story about Harris to be published in an upcoming edition of Semper Fi, a national publication of the Marine Corps League.

Photographs include the formal signing of a new charter for the league, with Harris's family, fellow Marines, and veterans looking on. Other photographs were of the ball, which drew hundreds.

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