Tennessee man killed in WWII buried at Arlington
SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Almost 70 years after he was killed during World War II, Pfc. Cecil E. Harris has been laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
Harris was declared missing in action when his platoon, part of Company D, 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division, withdrew from a hilltop in Dambach, Franch, on Jan. 2, 1956, as Allied forces tried to prevent Nazies from retaking the town of Strasbourg. The Shelbyville Times-Gazette (http://bit.ly/1D3ByhP ) reports hikers found Harris’ remains in Sept. 2013.
Harris’ sister, nieces and only son, Edwin Harris of Mountain City, Tennessee, attended the ceremony Wednesday. A memorial service was held in August in Chattanooga.
Cecil Harris, a Shelbyville native, went overseas when he was 20 to serve, a month before his son was born. They met once, when Edwin Harris was 4 months old. Now 70, the son said the Arlington service “was everything I’d hoped for and more.”
