Trending
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.
During World War II, Black Americans were often relegated to more support-level jobs in the racially segregated military and President Franklin Roosevelt faced pressure to put them in combat units. As a result, the military recruited Harris and hundreds of other Black men, trained them and sent them into blazes on the West Coast, where they fought fires, Bartlett said.
Throughout their time in the military, they faced overt racism, including being barred from going to the base commissary and officer's clubs unless they were specifically for Black people.
"This unit had to fight to be recognized as human beings while training to fight an enemy overseas, fight in their own country for respect even within the military," Bartlett said.