Mississippi Congressman Trent Kelly has announced that H.R. 208 has been signed into law by the President, which names the U.S. Post Office on West Main Street in Tupelo the “Colonel Carlyle ‘Smitty’ Harris Post Office.”
Colonel Harris’s F-105 fighter-bomber was shot down over North Vietnam on April 4, 1965. He was the sixth American to Prisoner of War (POW) in North Vietnam.
Colonel Harris was held as a POW for just under eight years, enduring starvation, solitude, and torture. Despite dire living conditions, Colonel Harris introduced the tap code to this fellow POWs to secretly communicate between cells.
During his time in captivity, he wrote letters to his wife, Louise, which were delivered to the Tupelo Post Office.
Kelly said, “I am thankful for the support from members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate in this endeavor to honor Colonel Harris for his service and the many sacrifices he and his family made in the name of freedom.”
