William Frederick Harris was born on 6 March 1918 at Good Samaritan Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, to Field Harris and Katherine Chinn-Harris. Harris graduated from the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland in the class of 1939. He was in A Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines and was captured by Japanese forces during the Battle of Corregidor in May 1942. He escaped with Edgar Whitcomb, future governor of Indiana, and on 22 May 1942 swam 8 1/2 hours across Manila Bay to Bataan, where he joined Filipino guerrillas fighting Japan just after the Battle of Bataan. In the summer of 1942, Harris and two others left Whitcomb and attempted to sail to China in a motorboat, but the engine failed and the boat drifted for 29 days with little food or water. The monsoon blew them back to an island in the southern part of the Philippines where they split up and he joined another resistance group. Harris headed towards Australia hoping to rejoin American forces he heard were fighting in Guadalcanal, but he was recaptured in June or September 1943 by Japan on Morotai island, Indonesia, around from Bataan. Harris was taken to Ōfuna POW camp, arriving 13 February 1944 and became acquainted with Louis Zamperini. Harris experienced malnutrition and brutal treatment at the hands of his jailers, notably by Sueharu Kitamura. Due to malnutrition, by mid-1944 the over tall Harris weighed only and had beriberi. In September and November 1944, Harris was beaten severely, to the point of unconsciousness, by Kitamura. According to fellow captive, Pappy Boyington, Harris was knocked down 20 times with a baseball bat for reading a newspaper stolen from the trash. Harris was near death when he arrived at a POW camp near Ōmori in early 1945. Zamperini provided Harris with additional rations and he recovered. William Harris was chosen to represent prisoners of war during the surrender of Japan, aboard on 2 September 1945. After World War II, Harris remained in the Marines. He married Jeanne Lejeune Glennon in 1946 and had two daughters. He was recalled to active duty during the Korean War. He was the commanding officer of Third Battalion, Seventh Marines, First Marine Division in the Korean War. During the breakout in the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, his unit stayed behind as a rear guard to protect retreating forces. Despite heavy losses, Harris rallied his troops and personally went into harm's way during the battle. Harris was last seen by American forces on 7 December 1950 walking and carrying two rifles on his shoulders. He was listed as missing in action, but after the war when former POWs had neither seen nor heard of him, Harris was declared to be dead. He was awarded the Navy Cross in 1951 for his actions at Chosin. Because of his penchant for escape and survival exhibited during World War II, his peers and family were reluctant to accept his death. A superior officer held on to his Navy Cross for a number of years, expecting to be able to give it to Harris personally. Remains thought to be his were eventually recovered and interred at Pisgah Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Versailles, Kentucky. His family doubted the remains were his, and conclusive testing using DNA had not been attempted as of 2014.
