Joe Harris, who as a sergeant with an all-Black infantry unit throughout International Battle II parachuted into woodland fires around the Pacific Northwest prompt via bomb-laden Jap balloons, and who was once believed to be the oldest surviving U.S. paratrooper, died on March 15 in Los Angeles. He was once 108.
His loss of life, in a sanatorium, was once showed via a consultant of his circle of relatives.
Mr. Harris was once a member of the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, nicknamed the Triple Nickles (the phrase was once intentionally misspelled) after their unit designation and the 3 buffalo nickels that shaped their insignia.
He had enlisted within the Military in 1941, and he volunteered to enroll in the 555th quickly after it was once shaped in 1943. The Military was once nonetheless rigidly segregated, and maximum Black provider individuals served in toughen roles; the battalion was once designed as an early step towards the army’s eventual desegregation.
It by no means served in a foreign country. As an alternative, in 1945 it was once transferred from its base in North Carolina to rural Oregon as a part of a confidential program referred to as Operation Firefly.
In overdue 1944, Jap forces had begun launching masses of so-called balloon bombs into the jet circulate, carried around the Pacific to the U.S. mainland. After 3 days, they dropped their explosive payloads.
Although some 300 bombs reached the US, simplest six folks have been killed, in one incident in Would possibly 1945. However the gadgets prompt numerous woodland fires, ceaselessly in rural portions of the West Coast.
The U.S. executive saved Operation Firefly, and the life of the balloon bombs, a secret, to keep away from stoking worry some of the civilian inhabitants.
Mr. Harris and his unit turned into the entrance line in preventing the blazes. Leaping from C-47 shipment planes, they wore leather-based soccer helmets with wire-mesh face mask and carried a brace of firefighting equipment, together with the Pulaski, a specialised device that mixes an ax and an adze.
They have been skilled to try for timber, to keep away from touchdown in dangerously rugged territory. Amongst their tools was once a 50-foot rope that they might use to drop to the bottom upon getting snared in branches.
Mr. Harris carried out 72 jumps, preventing fires began via the bombs in addition to via lightning and different herbal reasons. He was once honorably discharged in overdue 1945. The Military was once desegregated in 1947, and the 555th was once integrated into the 82nd Airborne Department.
Joe Harris was once born on June 19, 1916, in Westdale, a small the city in northwest Louisiana. Prior to becoming a member of the Military he was once a truck motive force.
After leaving the Military, Mr. Harris moved to Compton, Calif., the place he labored for the Border Patrol.
He’s survived via his son, Pirate Joe Harris; his daughters, Michaun Harris and Latanya Pittman; and 5 grandchildren. His spouse, Louise Harris, died in 1981.
Not like any other all-Black unit throughout International Battle II, the famed Tuskegee Airmen, the Triple Nickles lengthy remained difficult to understand, regardless that in fresh many years veterans teams have begun to have fun them.
In January a bunch of Marine Corps veterans and wildland firefighters visited Mr. Harris at his house in Compton. They offered him with a paratrooper patch and a Pulaski.
