Long-lost Tennessee World War II veteran interred at Arlington today

photo Helen Cooke, 90, holds a photo Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2014, at her apartment in Summit View Senior Community in Chattanooga, Tenn., of her late husband, Army Pvt. First Class Cecil E. Harris, who went missing in action while serving in eastern France during World War II.

World War II veteran U.S. Army Pvt. First Class Cecil E. Harris will be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery today at 1 p.m., bringing full circle his journey through time and halfway around the world.

Harris' remains were found at the end of the summer of 2013 by French hiker Vito DeLuca who was trooping through the woods near the town of Dambach in Eastern France near the German border.

DeLuca had stopped to rest at the foot of a large rock formation and spotted something white at his feet. What he found there answered an almost seven-decade long mystery, the remains of Shelbyville, Tenn., native Cecil Harris, a father, husband and Tennessee country boy who gave the ultimate sacrifice on Jan. 2, 1945.

He was 19 years old.

Harris was overseas with the "Thunderbirds" 45th Infantry Division in the winter of 1944 and 1945 when his platoon was overrun on top of the ridge where he was buried after he was killed in a German counterattack to try to take back Strasbourg and northern Alsace.

When the platoon was able to regroup, fellow soldiers realized Harris was missing but they never found his body.

After the discovery and recovery operation in the fall of 2013, Harris' remains were shipped from France to Honolulu, Hawaii, and from there to Chattanooga for a memorial service in Red Bank on Aug. 29. His former wife, Helen Harris Cooke, son, William Edwin Harris, and local family members attended the service.

Cecil Harris' granddaughter, Christie Laws, said this morning that she and her father were very emotional today in the hours leading up to the service.

"I can not describe all of the emotions going through us right now. The three-star general (participating in today's service) came to our room last night and sat and talked with us because he is also from Shelbyville and he will handing my dad the flag," Laws said in an email this morning on the service in Virginia.

Laws said she also was excited to meet U.S. Consulate General to Strasbourg Evan G. Reade, who was instrumental in the recovery of Cecil Harris' remains and his return to American soil.

Today, with his son and granddaughter among those in attendance, Cecil Harris will be laid to rest with the honor and respect his family has so long sought for him and that his family's friends in France helped deliver.

Stay with the Chattanooga Times Free Press for more on today's service.

Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or twitter.com/BenBenton or www.facebook.com/ben.benton1or 423-757-6569.

Upcoming Events