Harrison, Sabalu remembered at Correctional Officers Week luncheon at Fort Leavenworth
FORT LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS — Army Corrections Brigade soldiers and employees assembled for a prayer luncheon to observe National Correctional Officers and Employees Week May 6, 2025, at the Frontier Conference Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Guest speaker retired Lt. Col. Peter Grande, U.S. Disciplinary Barracks historian, said the week recognizes the contributions of workers who ensure the custody, safety and well-being of inmates, and that the luncheon provided the opportunity for the ACB teammates to break bread with their fellow correctional workers and to remember those in the profession who have passed on.
Grande paid tribute in his remarks to two Fort Leavenworth-connected fallen soldiers, Col. James Harrison Jr. and Master Sgt. Wilberto Sabalu Jr., who were killed in 2007 while serving in Afghanistan.
“They were assassinated by a rogue Afghan soldier standing guard outside the vehicle gate of the Pul-e-Charkhi prison,” Grande said. “These USDB corrections and detention subject matter experts were members of the Detainee Capabilities Directorate, Combined Security Transition Command. Their mission was to train, equip and mentor the Afghan National Detainee Guard Force.”
Grande said both Harrison and Sabalu volunteered to serve in Afghanistan.
“Colonel Harrison was serving as the director of the School of Command Preparation at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College when he pulled back his retirement paperwork and volunteered to deploy to Afghanistan,” Grande said. “Master Sergeant Sabalu was serving with the Total Army School System Regional Coordinating Element, Fort Monroe, Virginia, with duty at the U.S. Army Military Police School, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, when he volunteered.”
On that fateful Sunday afternoon in 2007, Harrison and Sabalu left the prison’s vehicle gate accompanied by Maj. Christopher Glover, Air Force 1st Lt. Morgan Ellison and an Afghan interpreter, with Sabalu driving the first vehicle with Glover as passenger and Ellison driving the second with Harrison and the interpreter as passengers.
“The rogue Afghan soldier with an AK-47 started shooting at the first vehicle to stop it, wounding Major Glover and killing Master Sgt. Sabalu. He then engaged the second vehicle, wounding First Lieutenant Ellison and killing his mission target of Colonel Harrison,” Grande said. “Other Afghan soldiers on duty were alerted to the firing, and when they saw what transpired, they returned fire at the rogue sentry, killing him.”
Glover and Ellison were treated for gunshot wounds and transported to another base for surgery. Harrison and Sabalu were pronounced killed in action.
Harrison was a military brat who went on to become a U.S. Military Academy graduate. Among his assignments, he served as the USDB commandant from 2004-2006. He was survived by his wife Penni and sons Braden, Ross and Joshua.
Sabalu was born in New York City and grew up in Chicago. Grande said Sabalu served as a correctional specialist in Korea and Panama, but made his mark and earned his professional reputation at the USDB as a team and squad leader and a member of special reaction and military police investigation teams. He said Sabalu was about three weeks away from ending his tour in Afghanistan to return to Fort Leavenworth to serve as a first sergeant for the 705th Military Police Battalion. He was survived by his wife Sgt. 1st Class Amy Sabalu and children Joshua and Nadia.
On Nov. 1, 2007, a road inside the Old USDB complex was dedicated in memory of Harrison. On Sept. 28, 2010, a road that passes by the ACB battalion headquarters buildings in the Military Corrections Complex was named to honor Sabalu. Two housing complexes at Camp Eggers in Kabul, Afghanistan, were named after them in 2007, and in 2009, Camp Sabalu-Harrison at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, was dedicated in their memory.
Grande thanked the corrections professionals present and urged them to be safe.
“I personally want to thank all of you who work inside the wire of both the USDB and Midwest (Joint Regional Correctional Facility). Your job is routine but can be challenging — life behind the wire can go from zero to 100 in a few seconds, and when you only have time to react, you react based on the training from (standard operating procedures) and post orders,” Grande said, referencing a recent incident when ACB correctional professionals did just that.
Col. Doug Curtis, ACB commander, thanked Grande for reminding everyone about Harrison and Sabalu and emphasizing the risk associated with the profession.
“I do think it can be taxing on us mentally, it can be taxing on us physically, and again, by our chosen profession … given the authority by our nation to take lives in the profession of arms or to take away freedoms … it can be taxing on you spiritually as well,” Curtis said. “Opportunities to come together here and hear a benediction and invocation by our chaplains help us nurture that, whatever your chosen spiritual lane is.”
Chaplain (Maj.) Jeremy Williams, deputy director of Pastoral Care, provided the invocation for the luncheon, and Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Todd Cheney, director of Pastoral Care, provided the benediction.
Social Sharing