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thedrifter
09-03-08, 08:34 AM
SEAL is 500th U.S. Afghan death

BY STEPHANIE GASKELL
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, September 2nd 2008, 11:49 PM

Petty Officer 1st Class Joshua Harris was a highly decorated Navy SEAL assigned to an elite team that carried out some of the military's most highly classified missions.

He was also an accomplished artist whose paintings were once displayed at Lincoln Center.

And he was the 500th U.S. service member killed fighting in Afghanistan.

Harris, 36, of Lexington, N.C., drowned last Saturday while trying to cross a river during a combat operation, Navy officials said.

"There are not enough words to say about a son like Josh," his grieving mother, Evelyn, said from her home in Lexington. "He was the most generous spirit you have ever met. He respected everyone who had a goodwill about them."

Harris was in the same unit as Lt. Michael Murphy of Patchogue, L.I., the first Navy SEAL to earn the Medal of Honor since Vietnam. Murphy, 29, was killed in Afghanistan in 2005.

Harris began painting at a young age and earned degrees in art and architecture.

But he always wanted to serve his country.

"Back in grade school, he wore camouflage pants to school," his mother said. "I'd have to wash them every day."

Harris' paintings were exhibited at the Cork Gallery at Lincoln Center in 1999.

"His art had a great deal of force and darkness," said Jim Moon, founder of Asolare Fine Arts Academy in Lexington. "It was extraordinarily strong and powerful."

Shortly after the exhibition, Harris moved to Manhattan for about a year and worked at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square. He also volunteered for a Brooklyn nonprofit that helps find homes for stray pets. He enlisted in the Navy in August 2000.

Harris joins the growing list of soldiers, sailors and Marines killed in Afghanistan since the war began. In July, more U.S. troops died in Afghanistan than in Iraq.

"No matter what you think of the war, my son felt he was fighting for our freedom, that he was fighting terrorism," Evelyn Harris said. "I don't want him to have died in vain."

sgaskell@nydailynews.com

With James Gordon Meek

Ellie