Patricia A. Harris (b. 1960) was born 21 September 1960 in Raleigh, North Carolina. During her adolescence, Harris participated in her high school marching band, Girl Scouts, and American Legion Unit 157's Junior Auxiliary. After graduating from Needham B. Broughton High School in 1978, Harris attended Civella Beauty School, now known as Civella Beauty Academy, in Raleigh, before deciding to enlist in the United States Army Reserve in May 1979. Harris was sent to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, for basic training, where she had her first encounter with military sexual harassment. She was then sent to Fort Benjamin Harris, Indiana, for Advanced Individual Training (AIT), where she trained in her Military Occupational Specialty (MOS), 73 Charlie (73 C), Finance Specialist. Harris then decided to transition to active duty and returned to Fort Jackson to wait for a new MOS class to begin at Fort Gordon, Georgia. At the end of the waiting period, Harris was preparing to return home to visit her parents, when she was physically and sexually assaulted by a male soldier. She made every effort to hide the bruising caused by the assault, but when her father inevitably saw, he drove her back to Fort Jackson to file a report with the Military Police (MP), and the soldier was eventually court-martialed. In 1980, Harris received orders to Fort Gordon, Georgia, where she was retrained in a new MOS, 25 Lima (25 L), Cable Systems Installer/Maintainer. Once again, Harris encounter sexual harassment. She also met her first husband while at Fort Gordon. Harris then received orders to Fort Polk, Louisiana, while her first husband received orders to Germany. They married before he left for his assignment. In 1981, Harris received orders allowing her to join her husband in Kaiserslautern, Germany. She worked as a wire systems installer and operator, setting up telephone poles, digging trenches and laying wire, operating switchboards, installing phones, and providing overall combat support service. As she was in a male-dominated field, Harris' husband would at times be jealous, leading to their separation and eventual divorce. In 1985, Harris received orders to Fort Hood, Texas, where she married her second husband on 2 January 1986. In 1991, Harris deployed to the Persian Gulf with the 1st Cavalry Division as part of the First Gulf War. She worked with a radio transmission unit on Mobile Subscriber Equipment, moving around the country with mobile antennas in order to keep communication lines available. In 1995, Harris joined a reserve unit in North Carolina and returned to Raleigh. She retired from the U.S. Army in 2001. In 2007, Harris founded the nonprofit Women Veterans Support Service, Inc., whose website states it's mission as providing "compassionate care to women veterans in the Triangle in times of crisis, ensure they receive the benefits to which they and their families are entitled, and connect them to community support."
