Joe Harris, believed to be the oldest surviving WWII paratrooper, has died
Source: Associated Press
Joe Harris, believed to be the oldest surviving WWII paratrooper, has died
By HALLIE GOLDEN
Updated 3:32 PM EDT, March 28, 2025
Sgt. Joe Harris, believed to be the oldest surviving World War II paratrooper and a member of the U.S. Army’s first all-Black parachute infantry battalion, has died. He was 108.
Harris died March 15 in a hospital in Los Angeles surrounded by family, grandson Ashton Pittman told The Associated Press. He will be honored with a full military funeral on April 5.
“He was a very loving, loving, loving man,” said Pittman. “That was one of the things that he was very strict upon was loving one another.”
Harris was among the last surviving members of the historic 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, nicknamed the Triple Nickles. The battalion helped protect the U.S. from deadly Japanese balloon bombs, according to Robert L. Bartlett, a retired Eastern Washington University professor who specializes in the 555th. In 1944 and 1945, the Japanese launched thousands of the balloons to be carried by the Pacific jet stream to the U.S. mainland to explode and start fires.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/obit-joe-harris-wwii-paratrooper-101a51c4650fa3101fd00cc0b7cf1b4d
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