Author Topic: The long road home for `Pug` (Read 250 times)

Jackal1 · « **on:** March 11, 2005, 06:52:56 PM »

This gentleman is from our area.
The story is from The Greenville Herald Banner.

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World War II soldier finally returns home

By Milton Babb/Herald-Banner Staff

Friday, March 11, 2005 1:29 AM CST

The body of World War II U.S. Army soldier Pfc. Preston Harris arrived back in Hunt County Thursday, after lying more than 60 years in an unmarked grave on a German battlefield. He was given a military escort to Peters Funeral Home in Greenville from DFW Airport, after being flown from Honolulu. After identification, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command transferred the remains to Hawaii.

Full military funeral services scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at Peters Funeral Home Chapel are described as a "welcome home." The general public is invited and encouraged to attend.

Harris' body was accompanied on the 16-hour trip by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Sharon Collins.

"I volunteered for this service," said Collins, who was born in Kaufman County. "I thought another Texan should escort him home."

Department of Public Safety troopers Gina Hines and Kelly Helleson were among the local law enforcement officers who provided escort services from DFW Airport to Greenville.

Helleson said providing the service was an honor.

"We're very happy he finally got to come home," she said.

Two Hunt County Sheriff's Office Deputies and several Greenville Police Department units also participated in the escort.

Among those planning to attend the belated funeral is Keith Bearden, who knew Harris when both were boys.

"We were about 12 years old when I knew him," Bearden recalled. "My family had just moved to Shady Grove. 'Pug' and I weighed about 100 pounds apiece. I remember the two of us walking behing the mules as they turned a hay baler. You had to walk behind them or they'd stop."

Bearden also remembered other members of the Harris family.

"There were several other boys, all dead now," Bearden said. "Their father had passed away back when I knew them and all the boys worked and gave the money to their mother to buy things for the family. It is hard to imagine that was more than 60 years ago," he said.

Of Harris' homecoming, "It is one of the most remarkable things I've ever seen," said Peters funeral director Mike Hines, who went to retrieve Harris' body at DFW Airport. "I'm proud for the family."

"Usually, human remains would go through the freight dock," said Peter's Bob Mason. "But they allowed the Sheriff's Deputies to pick up the coffin on the airport tarmac. They stayed with him the whole way."

Family members expressed surprise when first told Harris' body had been identified.

"We're shocked, but relieved," said nephew Knighton Hudson of his family's reaction. His father, Knighton P. Hudson, also served in the war.

"We were first notified in January. A genealogy company contacted us," Hudson said. "At first, we thought it was a joke or a hoax, but they'd been hired by the military to find the family."

In 1944, Harris was part of the 405th Infantry Regiment, 102nd Infantry Division that was fighting along the heavily fortified Siegfried Line near the German-Netherlands border.

Records show that Harris was killed Nov. 22, 1944. The family was told that he might have been buried in an unmarked grave at a military cemetery in the Netherlands.

Hudson's mother, Maple Harris Hudson of Greenville, is the only surviving sibling of Pfc. Preston Harris.

They were two of 10 children born to Thomas and Susa Hail Harris.

In June 2003, a German construction company was clearing a lot for industrial development near the small village of Beeck near the border with The Netherlands, and removing old land mines from the war. Their metal detectors first located part of a jeep, and while digging uncovered the remains of Harris.

"They found one his dog tags, and they were able to verify dental records," Hudson said. "The height was right; everything jived."

At the time he enlisted, the then 24 year-old Harris lived near FM 118 between Ardis Heights and Highway 24.

"There will be a military service, and we hope a military honor guard from Fort Hood," Hudson said. "But his mother said if his body was ever found, she didn't want a 21-gun salute."

"There's been enough shooting over there," Mrs. Harris told her family at the end of the war.

Following Saturday services, Harris will be buried alongside other family members in Vansickle Cemetery. The services are being provided at no cost to the family, partially through the U.S. military and partially through Dignity Memorial.

According to "The Men and Women in World War II from Hunt County," Preston Harris attended school at Cash, and entered the Infantry in June 1942. He trained at Mineral Wells, Camp Carson and Camp Roberts. He saw action in France before being killed in action in Germany Nov. 22, 1944. He received the Purple Heart and the Good Conduct Medal.

JB73 · « **Reply #1 on:** March 11, 2005, 07:54:23 PM »

great story

<~~>WWII veterens~~

Pongo · « **Reply #2 on:** March 11, 2005, 08:30:30 PM »

So they brought him back with the fan fare that a dead service man should have.

Bodhi · « **Reply #3 on:** March 11, 2005, 09:42:27 PM »

Maverick · « **Reply #4 on:** March 11, 2005, 11:20:15 PM »

Good story, thanks for posting it.

~~Soldier and welcome home. RIP~~

Raubvogel · « **Reply #5 on:** March 12, 2005, 02:14:29 AM »

Welcome Home PFC Harris. Sorry it took so long bud.

Jackal1 · « **Reply #6 on:** March 12, 2005, 07:33:53 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Pongo
So they brought him back with the fan fare that a dead service man should have.

Yea, I was afraid after the initial story that this would be buried under other local or national stories as is often the norm, but he is being brought home and paid the respect that he and men like him deserves.