Character
Harmon 'Harm' Rabb Jr. is a fictional character and lead role in the American television series JAG. The character was created by Donald P. Bellisario, as a work for hire for Para…
Read and enrich the people, organizations and context referenced in case files.
Explore the cases that include this wiki entry.
No case files include this entry yet.
Investigate this subjectBe the first to comment.
Harmon 'Harm' Rabb Jr. is a fictional character and lead role in the American television series JAG.
Harmon 'Harm' Rabb Jr. is a fictional character and lead role in the American television series JAG. The character was created by Donald P. Bellisario, as a work for hire for Paramount Television, in the script for the JAG pilot episode, which was filmed and then aired by NBC on September 23, 1995.
Harm is introduced as a lieutenant in the United States Navy serving as a judge advocate, but it is revealed that he has a background as a naval aviator. The viewer follows his naval career and personal life from that point as the series progresses. With the longevity of JAG, plenty of information on his past life and previous military service is given at various points in the series. JAG ended its ten-year run on April 29, 2005.
Harmon Rabb Jr. was born on October 25, 1963, in La Jolla, California to naval aviator Lieutenant Harmon Rabb, USN (played in flashbacks by David James Elliott, with a moustache) and Patricia Reed (Christina Pickles). Harm is a third generation aviator as his paternal grandfather was killed in action flying off the USS Hornet (CV-8) in 1942 during the Second World War. During the Vietnam War, his father flew F-4 Phantoms off the USS Ticonderoga and USS Hornet (CV-12). On Christmas Eve 1969, while flying an Iron Hand mission, Harmon Rabb, Sr. was shot down over North Vietnam and was considered MIA. Harm's mother went on to happily remarry Frank Burnett (Jon Cypher), a senior VP of Chrysler Corporation.
When he was 16, Harm went to Laos to look for his father together with Colonel Francis Stryker. Many years later, Harm was able to determine his father's fate: after he was shot down, Harmon Rabb, Sr. was taken to the Soviet Union, escaped from his captors, was involved with a Russian woman, and was killed protecting her from Soviet soldiers attempting to rape her in 1980. Later on, Harm met his half-brother, Sergeant Sergei Zhukov (Jade Carter) a helicopter pilot in the Russian Army, who was accused of selling weapons to Chechen rebels. Sergei was later shot down and captured by Chechen rebels.
Nearly every Christmas Eve, Harm is shown visiting the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. to pay tribute to his father. In one episode, he met Jenny Lake (played by Catherine Bell) who was present on the USS Ticonderoga when his father was shot down (and had been the fiancée of a Marine aviator who was KIA). On another Christmas Eve, he invited one of his father's former squadron buddies Rear Admiral Thomas Boone (Terry O'Quinn) to the Wall. Another year, Harm was surprised by Clayton Webb (Steven Culp) bringing his half-brother Sergei to see him at the Wall, after Webb exchanged two boxcars of wheat for Sergei's freedom in Chechnya.
Harmon Rabb Jr. graduated from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland; and although never stated in canon, judging by his birth year and other dates made explicit, it must have been in the latter half of the 1980s. His service number is #989548301. During his early naval career, Harm was a naval aviator flying F-14 Tomcats. On April 16, 1989, while flying an F-14 Tomcat to enforce a no-fly zone in the Gulf of Sidra, after he and his wingman were attacked, Harm shot down a Libyan Air Force MiG-23, disabled another, and forced the third one to return to its base. He served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Midway at some point. After an accident during a night landing on an aircraft carrier, in which his RIO (Radar Intercept Officer) dies, it is revealed Harm suffers from night blindness, he recovered on his grandmother's farm in Pennsylvania, before returning to naval service. After graduating from law school at Georgetown University Law Center and passing his bar exam, he transferred to the Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG). During his time at JAG, he trained with Navy SEALs and Marine Force Recon at close-quarters combat, Halo jumps, and other special forces tactics.
One of his most memorable moments was, in his zealous prosecution of a Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer, he fired an automatic weapon into the courtroom ceiling. Other notable cases Rabb was involved in include going undercover as a Force Recon Gunnery Sergeant, and investigating whether the actions of Navy SEAL Lieutenant Curtis Rivers (Montel Williams) warrants the Medal of Honor.
After a few years as a Judge Advocate, he had laser surgery to correct what was misdiagnosed as night blindness (actually blurred vision as a result of retinal scarring caused by service action) and resumed his career as a naval aviator, flying F-14s off the USS Patrick Henry (CVN-74) as a member of VF-218 "Raptors". However, because of the slim chance of career advancement as an aviator, Harm returned to JAG after six months of service aboard Patrick Henry. While in the aviation squadron, his call sign was "Pappy" because he was older than the other aviators. Later, the other pilots renamed him "Hammer", his father's former call sign, believing Rabb's father would have been impressed by his son's bravery.
In 2002, Harm and Mac prosecutes a high-ranking Al-Qaeda member captured by US Forces in Afghanistan in a military tribunal.
In the season 8 episodes "Ice Queen" and "Meltdown"—the backdoor pilot for NCIS—Rabb is accused of killing Lieutenant Loren Singer (Nanci Chambers). He was defended by Lieutenant Commander Faith Coleman (Alicia Coppola). Though NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) initially thinks he is the culprit, Gibbs later becomes convinced of his innocence, but it is Special Agent DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) who finds the proof exonerating him.
Source: Harmon Rabb (CC BY-SA)
We label verified structured information, user opinions, and AI-discovered relationships separately.
While serving at JAG, Rabb still kept his flight status current. At one point, after being denied leave by his commanding officer, Rear Admiral Chegwidden, to rescue Mac, Rabb resigned his commission from the Navy. He had a short stint working as an employee for the CIA. While flying for the CIA, Harm landed a C-130 Hercules aboard the aircraft carrier USS Seahawk. While working for the CIA, Rabb was certified in several
