(All our Veterans have different backgrounds, different lives, and different stories. The one thing that they have in common is their service to our country. Some served 2 years, some 4, while others made a career of the military. Many Veterans saw battle or supported troops in battle; others spent a good deal of their service in one place. There are Veterans from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, National Guard, and now, the Space Force.)

Originally from Eaton Rapids, MI, Gail Harris joined the Army when he was 18. When asked why he joined the Army at that age, his reply was that he lived in a small town where the economy, at that time, was “crap”, and there was not enough money, nor were his grades good enough for college to be a possibility. His own dad joined the service and became a World War II Army 155 mm howitzer artillery Veteran. The 155 howitzer is a widely used, medium-caliber artillery piece designed for indirect fire support. Three of Gail’s brothers were enlisted in the Army. One was in the National Guard Army, and another served in Vietnam as a signal corps field repair. The family had a service mindset.

Gail was sent to Fort McClellan, AL, to train as Military Police (MP). During World War II, Fort McClellan was one of the largest U.S. Army installations, training an estimated half-million troops. But due to reorganization, the base was shut down in 1999. The Army had just started a narcotics dog-handling school at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, and Gail was sent there to train and become one of only 35 narcotics dog handlers in the Army. His duty stations included Okinawa Japan, Ft. Benning GA, and Germany.

While overseas, Gail worked in the Basel area at the Germany-Switzerland Border crossing, as well as occasionally searching barracks with his narcotics dog. When his service in the Army was over, he spent 14 years as Squad Leader in the Army Reserves in Jackson MI.
Gail’s varied post-service career included a stint as a Pinkerton detective, 19 years making hardwood floors and railroad ties in a hardwood mill, and another 19 years with Adient Johnson Controls assembling seats for the GMC/Chevy Traverse SUV. He retired for a short period of time and then came back into the workforce as a Quality Liaison for Adient at their new Spring Hill plant for the manufacture of the Cadillac XT6. When this car went out of production in 2025, Gail decided to retire for real.

Gail Harris presently holds the distinction as the youngest member of the Tri-County Honor Guard. We hope other Veterans will see the need to volunteer for the Honor Guard at Veteran funerals and that Gail will not hold the honor of being the youngest for very long!

His fiancée, Sherri Fugate, works in real estate title insurance. Her father was 16 years old when he joined the Army Air Corp as a bottom gunner in B-17s during WWII. Her dad’s three brothers were also in the Army during WWII. Both of these people come from families with a service to country mindset.