CarryOn Technologies:
Why I Built It
A founder's story by Barnet Louis Harris II
In my family, legacy isn't an abstract word—it's a living thread.
Family Origins - The Marine's Marine
The legacy I inherited began with my grandfather, Barnet L. Harris—an orphan who ran away from home as a boy, stowing away on a train to anywhere. He was taken in by a Scottish immigrant family who gave him their name and a new start. He became a Marine in World War I, right in the thick of it—in the places that forged the Corps' legend: the "Devil Dog" grit, the blood-stripe pride. Decorated by the French Foreign Legion and later serving as one of the Corps' premier bayonet instructors, he forged the lore that echoed at our dinner table.
After the war, he drove a taxi in New York City. Not glamorous, but honest. He carried people where they needed to go, and he used to say, "if you always tell the truth, you ain't gotta remember notin'!" That simple practicality fit him. But sadly, whatever deeper wisdom he held was lost to time—only that one fragment survives now in my memory, despite my father's best efforts to make his father live on in my mind.
My Father - The Warrior Turned Inventor
My father, Arthur Milton Harris, was a WWII Marine—a flamethrower in the first wave at Cape Gloucester—later a chief engineer aboard a Maritime Sea Transport Service ship operating with the U.S. Navy in the Korean War. At home, he turned that same courage into creation and invented things we take for granted: the mouth-to-mouth resuscitator, the inhaler, the aerosol valve, ultrasonic welding, even the injection-molding process for golf balls—over 300 patents in a lifetime.
A stand-up comedian, prize fighter, stock-car driver, international corporate president, CIA courier, and close friend of Albert Einstein in the twilight of Einstein's life—because, why not?! He had me at 50 and lived to 88. My father didn't just make products; he made possibility.
But all that he passed to me in his stories, his mentorship, and his fatherly legacy, I can feel fading as I try to pass it on to my own children.
The Son - Following in Their Footsteps
Born on my grandfather's birthday—and carrying his name—I followed the only path that made sense in my lineage: service and discipline, with a little danger baked in.
Valedictorian of my Army and Navy Academy Class of 1996 and a 2000 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, I became a Naval Aviator—helicopters and fixed wing—served as a Squadron Commanding Officer and an Amphibious Aircraft Carrier Air Boss. I served as the U.S. Naval Attaché to Brazil, worked as a diplomat and intelligence officer, and learned to think and feel in other languages—Japanese and Brazilian Portuguese.
I earned an Executive MBA from the Naval Postgraduate School and a Master's in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College, all while building a small real-estate investment legacy with an executive three-unit short-term rental property only minutes from the Iwo Jima Monument in Washington, D.C.
After 24 years in uniform, I retired a U.S. Navy Captain and continue flying as a pilot for United Airlines.
My Center of Gravity
Yes, I've lived a high-speed, low-drag life—with plenty of stories and hard-won lessons my children can benefit from. But the gravitational center of my world is home: my wife—my childhood sweetheart since we were 13—and our children, Emma and Kent.
Emma is relentless excellence: never less than an A, AP catalog maxed out, 4s and 5s, 1410 SAT, 33 ACT, fluent Japanese, a Battalion Commander in NJROTC, musician and athlete—swims, sails, rides horses—and yes, she's beautiful inside and out. Kent is a creator of value: at 16 he made $10,000 flipping Pokémon cards and is already an active day trader aiming for financial freedom before adulthood.
"My wife depends on me for more than the bacon—she depends on me for ballast."
The Realization
Aviation has a way of making you honest about mortality. The risk is non-zero. The requests from the people I love are constant and human—Dad, what should I do about ... ? Honey, where is ... ? Papa, how do we ... ?
Life is complex: accounts, passwords, policies, documents. My will? Probably last updated in 2008. If I didn't make it home tomorrow, there would be heartbreak—and then there would be chaos. My family would be grieving and searching—for answers, for instructions, for me.
One night, after yet another round of "Where's this account? How should we handle that?" I realized something simple and terrifying: my legacy wasn't organized for the people who need it most. Not my medals, not my résumé—my guidance. The operating manual for the most important mission of my life: my family after me.
Three Threads
The Harris lineage of service and creation — carry your people forward.
The aviator's discipline — checklists, flight plans, emergency procedures.
And my Navy callsign, "Luggage." My best friend's callsign? "Carry On."
CarryOn Technologies was born.
The Idea
What if legacy weren't left to the fleeting memory of loved ones—subject to interpretation and reshaping over time?
What if it were archived and secured in an unalterable digital corpus?
What if we could capture the essence, codify the know-how, and pass it on with certainty to our loved ones, so they can carry on—forever?
The Platform
CarryOn is a continuity platform for real life.
Part digital vault for assets, accounts, documents, and policies.
Part knowledge library—video, audio, and written guidance in your own voice.
Part crisis checklist—"If I'm suddenly gone, call here, do this, close that, read this."
Part life navigator—"Emma, congratulations on finding your soulmate; here's what I wish I'd known when starting out with your mother... or Kent, congrats on your first baby—here's what we learned when Emma was born, and what we improved for you, you lucky second child."
"It's the NATOPS of your life—the flight manual the people you love can actually use."
How It Works
Record what you know—stories, principles, instructions, advice, mentorship, love.
Organize what you own—accounts, policies, documents, contacts.
Pre-program your wishes—who gets what, who to call, what to do first, what comes next.
With secure triggers and permissions, your family can access what they need, when they need it—without rummaging through grief. In essence, they can quickly carry on.
Why Now
Modern lives are digitally fragmented and procedurally fragile. The average family juggles dozens of accounts, policies, cloud drives, passwords, properties, and platforms.
We have high-fidelity photos of our pets—and low-fidelity access to our own wishes. In aviation, we don't leave emergencies to improvisation; we brief, rehearse, and checklist. Families deserve the same rigor—delivered with compassion.
The Promise
CarryOn is the product I wish my grandfather had left my father, and my father had left me: not just artifacts, but guidance; not just achievements, but instructions; not just what they did, but how they decided.
It's the platform I owe Emma and Kent, and the still-unseen grandchildren who will ask questions I won't be here to answer.
"I'm not building a death product.
I'm building a continuation product."
My family's story began with Marines carrying colors through fire and mud. It continued with an inventor who put air back into people's lungs. I became an aviator who brought aircraft safely to pitching, rolling flight decks in the middle of the night, thousands of miles from shore.
CarryOn Technologies is how I extend that purpose—that mission: to carry the people I love—and yours—onward with clarity, dignity, and direction.