Sergeant First Class Harris was a member of Company L, 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy in North Korea on December 12, 1950 and died while a prisoner on September 30, 1951. His remains were not recovered. His remains have been recovered and identified, but his name is permanently inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.