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1st Lt Herbert P. Harper graduated from Oscilla High School, Oscilla, Georgia in 1935 and then attended Howard College, Norman Junior College, Piedmont College, and Georgia Teachers College. He was within one semester of graduation from college when, in 1939, he received an appointment to West Point. He entered West Point on 8 July 1939.

It was during his last year at the Academy that he met his future wife. She lived only across the river in Cold Spring, New York. Immediately upon graduation he and Marvel were married.
Shortly thereafter Lt. and Mrs. Harper reported to the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia. Then, successively, he was sent to Camp Gruber, Oklahoma, back to Fort Benning and to England.
He never got to see his baby boy. The boy was born at almost the time Pete was embarking for overseas.

On 10 December 1944 at about dusk, in Hagenau, France, Lt Harper was going back to bring his platoon to a forward position in the town as per orders from his company commander. He was walking along a road that he had only shortly before come up and on which he had reason to assume were American soldiers. In the darkness he saw soldiers outlined. He spoke twice to the soldiers asking them what outfit they were from. Something in German was uttered simultaneously with the snapping explosions of a machine gun and the throwing of grenades. The soldiers were German soldiers. Pete was perforated by the machine gun’s blasts. His last words were "I'm hit bad." In three or four minutes he was dead.

He was first buried at the Temporary American Military Cemetery in Hochfelden, France.