Joe Harris, believed to be oldest surviving WWII paratrooper, dead at 108

Joe Harris, a sergeant with an all-Black infantry unit and believed to be the oldest surviving World War II paratrooper, died March 15 in Los Angeles, a family representative said. He was 108.

Harris will be honored with a full military funeral on April 5, according to his grandson, Ashton Pittman.

“He was a very loving, loving, loving man,” Pittman said. “That was one of the things that he was very strict upon was loving one another.”

Harris parachuted into forest fires across the Pacific Northwest that were ignited by Japanese balloons carrying bombs during World War II. He was a member of the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, nicknamed the Triple Nickles after their 555 unit designation and the three buffalo nickels that formed their insignia. The nickname was intentionally misspelled.

Harris enlisted in the Army in 1941, joining the Triple Nickles shortly after it was formed in 1943. The outfit never served overseas, but in 1945 it was transferred from its North Carolina base at Camp Mackall to rural Oregon, part of a confidential operation known as Operation Firefly.

In late 1944, Japanese forces began launching hundreds of the balloon bombs into the jet stream. They were carried across the Pacific Ocean to the U.S. mainland, and after three days, the balloons were programmed to drop their bombs.

Although approximately 300 bombs reached the United States, only six people were killed. That came in a single incident in May 1945. But the devices set off countless forest fires, often in rural parts of the West Coast.

The U.S. government kept Operation Firefly and the existence of the balloon bombs secret to avoid causing fear among civilians.

During World War II, Blacks were usually relegated to support-level jobs in the military, which was still racially segregated. Throughout their time in the military, they were barred from going to the base commissary and officer’s clubs unless they were specifically for Blacks.

“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,” said Robert L. Bartlett, a retired Eastern Washington University professor who specializes in the 555th.

Harris performed 72 jumps and was honorably discharged in late 1945. The Army was desegregated in 1948, and the 555th was folded into the 82nd Airborne Division.

Joe Harris was born on June 19, 1916, to John and Chaney Wilson Harris in Westdale, Louisiana. Before joining the Army, he was a truck driver. He married Louise Singleton in 1942; she died in 1981.

After leaving the Army, Harris moved to Compton, California, where he worked for the Border Patrol.

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