US Army Air Corps 1Lt. Harold James Morris was born in Oklahoma on August 26, 1921, the son of William "Willie" Allen Morris (1900-1975) and Ethel Mae Poston (1901-1977). His father supported his family as a house painter in 1930 and 1940 while they were living in Bristow, Creek County, Oklahoma. Harold would attend grade school there and would graduate from Bristow High School. He was an eagle scout, a wrestler, and a member of the Demolay Fraternity. He went on to attend Central State College in Oklahoma City, which was where he first became involved in the CAA Civil Aviation Authority) program. But after two years he left to enlist in the US Army Air Corps in September 1941 as an aviation cadet before being called up to active duty on January 20, 1942.
His cadet training was at Bakersfield, California and his advanced flight training at Luke Field, Arizona. He would receive his commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in August 1942. Sometime during or after 1942, Harold married Barbara E. Shackleton (1916-2002) from the town of Millbrae, San Mateo County, CA and would give birth to a baby girl. Very likely they had met when he was in flight training at Bakersfield. But it was now time for all of his training as a fighter pilot to be put to use for Uncle Sam. Therefore, he was sent overseas around August 1943 and attached to the 82nd Fighter Squadron (the Duxford Eagles) of the 78th Fighter Group stationed in Duxford, England.
Ironically, his parents and grandparents were natives of Brewton, Alabama and his parents had married in nearby Foshee. They left Oklahoma and moved to Pensacola sometime after 1940. Here they established a residence at 2909 West Lee Street, which was occupied by his parents plus his wife and daughter.
In the meantime, Harold and his squadron were kept busy escorting the huge bombers to and from their targets. When not escorting, they were free to engage in strafing enemy troops, trains, German convoys, shipping, or any other opportunistic target that presented itself. On one mission he destroyed three locomotives, damaged two others, riddling a train station, set fire to two factory buildings, destroyed two hangars plus a number of box cars. He is also credited with damaging two German ME 190's in aerial combat plus a shared kill of a FW 190 fighter shot down on a escort mission to Metz on April 25, 1944. During the D-Day invasion his squadron was given the job of providing air support for the paratroopers jumping behind enemy lines. In spite of the inclement weather, he and his P-47 Thunderbolt bombed and strafed a multitude of ground targets in support of his ground pounding comrades below.
After 71 combat missions, he was assigned one more on July 26, 1944, over Givet, France, a strategic crossing over the Meuse River. On his way back from the mission he saw a German truck racing down a road in Lavalli, France and dove down to strafe it. Sadly, he was unable to pull out of his dive and crashed. The American staff received word of his death from the German government through the International Red Cross. His parents and wife were notified at their home that Harold had been killed in action. Soon, word drifted through the rest of the family in Pensacola to include his brother Kenneth, a sister Mrs. E. D. Barnes, his grandmother Mrs. J. R. Vickery all of Pensacola and his grandmother Mrs. Neil Morris in Brewton.
His remains were disinterred and brought home to Pensacola in May 1949 aboard the Army transport SS Haiti Victory where they were buried with full military honors in Barrancas Cemetery. By this time, it is believed that his wife Barbara had remarried Lawrence Borba and was residing in California after the war.
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