SGT. Joe Harris lived a beautiful life.
555. During World War II, the US Army first set sail as a member of the Black Parachutist Battalion.Triple nickles. “
In the funeral service on Saturday, friends, families and uniform members danced and sang to honor Harris, who was believed to be the oldest parachutist veteran when he died on March 15th.
555. Cynthia Barren, a part of an organization in the history of Parachute Infantry Battalion, on Saturday at the Lewis Metropolitan CNE Church II. World War II is applauded with music during a commemoration ceremony for the veteran Joe Harris.
He was 108 years old.
“He was a gentle, compassionate, compassionate man,” his daughter La Tanya said to Times. “He did not allow the fact that he was fighting for freedom at times separated from his life.”
On June 19, 1916, Westdale, La. On Saturday, Lewis stopped at the Metropolitan Cme Church.
Many of them cried, but at the same time they laughed, the service felt like a return to a house – a last jump to the unknown for Harris.
His grandson Ashton Pittman thanked his grandfather for everything he sacrificed.
“It was our rock, it was the basic that generations were built,” he said.
Joe Harris’s grandson Ashton Pittman holds a jacket and boat given to him by the organizers of a group of old and active parachutists during the commemoration service of Harris on Saturday.
Harris received full military honor and entered the Inglewood Park Cemetery.
At the funeral, II. World War II Willys Jeep escort, and for more than 60 years, he flew at his Harris house in Compton, where he lived for more than 60 years.
Compton Mayor Emma Sharif announced that the city has discovered plans to rename a street after Harris.
Members of the US National Forestry Service and II-II.
Retired US Army SGT. Donald Garrison, who participated in the souvenir events and parachute jumps, who first met Harris a few years ago and honored the tripartite Nickles.
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1. Pirate Joe Harris SR is supported by friends and relatives while seeing his father’s body during a memorial ceremony. 2. A participant holds a program commemorating Joe Harris. (David Butow/Times For) 3. Members carry Joe Harris’s coffin out of the Lewis Metropolitan Cne Church.
“Holy smoking, my friend, caused people like me, Gar Garrison said when the sound was broken. “I get a little emotional because I feel in my heart.
La Tanya Pittman said that his father was talented as parachutists, but he wanted to be a pilot while in the army.
“They wouldn’t even let him try,” he said. “But he still continued to serve his country.”
As a member of Triple Nickles, Harris was a part of a unit ready for war, but the parachutists were not sent abroad. Instead, they were educated as some of the first America ”smoke. ”
They were assigned to parachute to the Pacific northwest forests to fight fires fired by the Japanese balloon bombs launched from the Pacific Ocean to North America.
The Firefly operation, which is an extremely hidden task, saw that Smokejumpers had made forest fires and had fallen explosives were disarmed.
CPL. Philadelphia and Elijah H. Wesby from SGT. Ft. Benning, Ga., 1944.
According to the US Forest Service, Pendleton, Ore. And Chico was deployed in California and responded to 36 fires and made 1,200 jumps.
Together with the Order Historical Foundation, the Chief Historian Matt Historical Foundation, an important reason for keeping the operation secret is to limit its access to Japan about the balloon bombs coming to North America.
BLY, although six people were killed near Ore, when they discovered a fell balloon in May 1945, the general damage caused by weapons was limited.
“Balloons did not work as the Japanese aimed at, Seel Seeinger said.
Harris made 72 successful leaps when he was with the Ordu, according to the organization beyond the call documenting the stories of veterans.
Smokejumpers is equipped with Wildland Firesfighting equipment, including football -style leather helmets.
After he became an honorable discharge, Harris bought a house in Compton and had three children with his high school lover Louise Singleton Harris. He has been working for the US border patrol for nearly 40 years.
Former Mayor of Compton Omar Bradley, who grew up next to the Harris family, danced next to a large radio console in Harris’s living room at the age of 3 or 4.
“His favorite thing was to invite me and dancing in front of his friends, Bradley said, Bradley, who later learns that other men were 555 and senior parachutists. “But if he really wanted me to open it, he would have thrown $ 1, and all the home – wife, children, everyone – I was laughing, because I would start making divisions.”
Harris was a father’s figure and a constant fixture in the Compton community.
“Stalwart was determined and unchanged, Brad said Bradley. “A real American.”
Neil Gallagher, former Wildland Fireman Neil Gallagher, was honored to visit Harris at his home in January.
He and the two other veterans presented Harris a pulser, a forest fire vehicle used to build fire crumbs, and a parachutist patch.
Active duty and retired US Army Parachutists, II. World War II is respected by his senior Joe Harris during his burial at Inglewood Park Cemetery on Saturday.
“They fought fascism and then fought racism,” Gallagher, the founder of the non -profit organization that protects their stories, said.
“Our country is obliged to ensure that heroes like Mr. Harris are never forgotten, and this begins by offering units such as 555 they deserve,” he said.
In 1981, his wife and a grandson came before death in front of Harris.
Harris survived two daughters, one son, four grandchildren, 15 great grandchildren and 20 great grandchildren.
