Navy on July, 23, 1940 and was assigned to the 30,000-ton battleship USS Arizona. That lead to him working for a time on public works projects in Oregon.Īt age 20 and still looking for greener pastures, Hiram enlisted in the U.S. Without many other options, Hiram left school after attending Zetella Grammar School and joined the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1937 at age 17. Jobs were worse than scarce and cash money was non-existent for a family of fifteen.
The Great Depression was going full blast.
Hiram Harris has the dubious distinction of being one of the very first of over 300,000 Americans to die in WWII.īorn Jin Coweta County but raised in West Spalding County the child of Jams Render and Bessie Couch Harris, Hiram was the oldest of a brood of thirteen children. My uncle died on the Arizona that day and my father was born - child number 13 and the person who left me an Avanti on his passing a few years back.