US Army Private Paul Herbert Harmon was born in Dothan, Alabama on March 26, 1929, the son of Ralph Leslie Harmon (1898-1963) and Eddie Lou Gantt (1900-1974). His parents were married in 1918 and they spent their lives moving around where Ralph pursued various jobs as an automobile mechanic. As early as 1918, he was a mechanic in Wetumpka, Alabama and four years later was with the Webber-Doe Motor Company in Montgomery. By 1930, he was in Troy, Alabama and five years after that in Panama City.
The family finally arrived in Escambia County, Florida sometime before 1938 where Ralph went to work for the Pensacola Buggy Works. The family spent several years in Cantonment where Paul attended Tate High School but would leave school prior to graduation. Paul would enlist in the US Army on January 2, 1951, and after basic training was assigned to Company "K" of the 14th Infantry Regiment. On August 1, 1951, the 14th Infantry less personnel and equipment was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division then fighting in Korea. To man and equip the 14th Infantry assets were taken from the 34th Infantry Regiment (24th Division), then conducting infantry training in Japan. The 14th Infantry was then moved to Korea where it replaced the 24th Infantry Regiment, which was being inactivated. For the next two years the regiment was in almost constant combat along the 38th parallel in the Ch'orwon-Kumhwa area.
It was in this area on September 29, 1951, that Private Paul Herbert Harmon was killed in action. His body was turned over to the graves registration company and buried in a military cemetery. In 1952, his remains were disinterred and brought home to his parents and buried with military honors in the Bayview Cemetery where they and two of his siblings would join him later in peace.
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