Sergeant Joe Harris, who was believed to be the oldest surviving WWII paratrooper died on 15 March in Los Angeles. He was 108.
Harris was born on June 19, 1916, in West Dale, Louisiana. He began his military service in 1941 when he was 24. By the time he was honorably discharged in November 1945, he had completed 72 parachute jumps.
After the war, he worked for the U.S. Border Patrol. He also spent more than 60 years in Compton, California, where Pittman said he was the neighborhood patriarch, a man everyone on the block knew and gravitated to.
Harris was among the last surviving members of the historic 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, nicknamed the Triple Nickles. The battalion did not serve overseas during World War II, primarily because it never reached full strength for an Airborne Infantry Battalion. Instead they were shipped to the west coast to battle fires started by Japanese Fu-Go balloon bombs.
He is survived by his son and two daughters along with five grandchildren. His wife, Louise Harris, died in 1981.
He will be honored with a full military funeral on April 5.
Requiescat in pace.