Angela Harris

Yeoman First Class Angela Harris joined the Coast Guard in the summer of 1998. She moved to Alaska on Christmas Day in 2005, which was a much colder departure from her upbringing in Georgia. She spent much of her career working with the Arctic Operations Team and raised her four children in Alaska. Her oldest two daughters are now serving in the Navy as a hospital corpsmen and personnel specialist, her son is attending college in California and her youngest daughter just graduated from high school and has been her caregiver. After joining me at Invictus, she too will enlist in the Navy.

In February 2022, Harris had a chance encounter with a person suffering with mental illness while visiting the Anchorage Lousaac Library that left her with a spinal cord injury. After her assault she worked tirelessly with our state legislators and on July 11, 2024 Governor Dunleavy signed HB66 which combats crime and protects victims. This is a fantastic first step towards a safer community. In the midst of her recovery, her Navy Wounded Warrior care team suggested she try adaptive sports, but she wasn’t ready. By January 2024, she attended her first camp and it changed her life.

“I’ve made lifelong friends and learned that with adaptations, I can do anything!”

What does the Invictus Games mean to you?

I am bouyed by the camaraderie I have found in Team U.S. I am most excited to meet other service members from around the world to glean insights from their experiences, as I am at the very beginning of my own healing journey. Invictus is something that I never, in a million years, would have imagined for me. It’s opened up avenues of what is still possible for me.