Murrysville brothers join Coast Guard, continue family's military service

When Nathan Harris made the decision to enter the U.S. Coast Guard, it was more than just choosing a school. And it was more than just competitive sibling rivalry. Harris’ older brother Drew is already in his second year of Coast Guard training.

The Harris brothers’ decision carries on a family history of military service dating to the Revolutionary War.

“My dad is a contractor for the nuclear Navy, and I also grew up hearing about how great-grandparents on both sides of my family were involved in the military,” Drew Harris said.

When Harris was 6 years old, the family traveled to San Diego for a week while his father worked on a Navy aircraft carrier.

“I remember seeing how massive and how cool the carriers were,” he said. “That was sort of start of my awareness about the military.”

There was plenty more to discover.

One of the boys’ great-grandfathers, Donald Owen Graffius, earned the Silver Star for gallantry in action aboard a U.S. warship during World War II, the opening offensive against Japanese positions in Tulagi Bay in August 1942.

On the other side of the family, great-grandfather Joseph Leonard Douda was a lieutenant colonel in the Army during World War II, and his wife, Anna, was an Army second lieutenant. She was among the first wave of nurses to set foot on the beaches at Normandy, France, during the D-Day invasion.

“I grew up hearing about how they were all involved in the military,” Harris said.

As Harris got closer to graduation at Franklin Regional Senior High School, he began looking at some of the military academies.

“I knew the Coast Guard did a lot of humanitarian missions,” he said. “But we’re also maritime security for things like drug and migrant interdiction. And we do maritime stewardship. We protect the coast, itself, and help maintain travel routes for cargo ships.

“Basically, the Coast Guard is a lifesaving service, but it’s so much more.”

Drew Harris is stationed in North Carolina, doing a sort of military internship designed to help him experience life as a junior enlisted man, Nathan is at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., undergoing “Swab Summer,” the nickname for the summer of a recruit’s freshman year. It’s a demanding eight weeks, including one spent working aboard a tall ship, meant to illustrate the day-to-day responsibilities of a Coast Guard cadet.

Drew Harris isn’t sure what specialty his brother might pursue, but aviation is the direction that he wants to go.

“I study mechanical engineering at the academy, and I’ve always had a broader interest in aerospace,” he said. “From a mission standpoint, aviation does a lot of really cool stuff.”

However, Harris said he’s making sure not to tell his little brother everything his first year will entail.

“I figure, he’ll be going through it soon enough, and there’s something to be said for keeping some of it quiet,” Harris said. “But I told him all the amazing things about being part of it.”