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S/Sgt Harry A. Clawson attended college and was a metal worker.

He volunteered for the Army of the United States in Phoenix, Arizona on 2 September 1942.

He was awarded the Silver Star Medal. The citation cited: He displayed outstanding courage as a volunteer of a group assaulting enemy positions on June 6, 1944, about two and one half miles east of Carentan, France. Crossing a 283-foot bridge in the face of strong enemy machinegun and small arms fire he and his group forced the enemy temporarily to withdraw. This enabled his own forces to reorganize against enemy counterattack. His conduct was in accordance with the highest standards of military service.

He was reported missing in action on 6 October 1944 due to enemy artillery shelling and mortar fire during the battle of Opheusden. At that time he and Pfc Morris L. Thomas were being treated for non life-threatening injuries in the signalman's house at Smachtkamp that served as an aid station. During a German counter-attack, the house was set on fire, killing both men. At some point, after the house was hit, the Germans moved the bodies of Clawson and Thomas to a forward aid station on the southern side of the railway embankmen, where they established a temporary cemetery. Their corpses were then buried on the northern side of the tracks, to keep them separate from the German dead. Over the weeks following the battle the shallow graves were covered by floodwater and any external sign of their existance washed away.

He was officially declared dead one day and one year after he was reported missing in action.

In December 1971, Karel Huibers, a nineteen year old Dutch tree nurseryman found the remains of the two paratroopers in an unmarked grave in his tree nursery, next to the railway from Geldermalsen to Elst.

S/Sgt Clawson was laid to rest at Thatcher Cemetery on 8 May 1972 in Thatcher, Arizona.