Harlie Wilton Sands was born on July 7, 1920 in Sydney, Richland County Montana to Charles O. and Emma A. (Bergstrom) Sands. The family had moved to Minnesota by 1923 and his father owned and farmed in rural Whitefield, MN. Both parents were born in Minnesota. He had two sisters Harriet and Dorothy and six brothers: Carlisle, Thomas, Donald, George, Luverne and James. He was married to Muriel D. Nordin on January 5, 1942 and they resided in Willmar, MN. She remarried and died in 2009.

He had enlisted in the Army Air Forces on Valentine’s day February 14, 1942. Served during World War II. He had the rank of Sergeant and was a Left Waist Gunner. Service number was 17114235. Served with 388th Bomber Group, Heavy, 563rd Bomber Squadron. Sgt Harlie W Sands entered the service on 2 September 1942. After training he was sent overseas on 11 February 1944.

Sands experienced loss of life on March 8, 1944. When his B-17G #42-30340, “Screamin Red Ass” was hit by enemy ME 109s. When last seen, the # 3 engine was feathered and both wings were badly shot up. The plane crashed west of Magdeburg. Very determined enemy fighter opposition, lasting from 1300 to 1345 hours was met in route to the target. As was the case in the previous mission, all enemy attacks were during a lapse of our escort. 30 to 50 e/a mosty FW 190's made these attacks mainly from the nose high in a trail of 10 to 12 a/c. These saturation tactics confused our gunners, as they knew not which a/c to fire at. Since it was impossible to fire at all enemy aircraft attacking, some would get through. All of our missing a/c were shot down on this series of attacks

Harlie W Sands is buried at Plot M Row 8 Grave 7, Netherlands American Cemetery, Margraten, Netherlands. This is an American Battle Monuments Commission location.