WWII Mountain Memories:
Home Front to the Frontline
Testimonies of WWII Veterans and Civilians from Western North Carolina

Mr. Branson enlisted with the US Navy for six years in September 1940. He said he enlisted to "see the world" two years after his High School graduation. Mr. Branson is a native of Asheville, NC.

Mr. Branson's combat experience consisted of Pearl Harbor during that fateful day of December 7, 1941.

Mr. Branson was sent to Norfolk, Virginia for his boot camp training, which he described as "tough".   The training consisted of gunnery training and physical fitness training and becoming familiar with ship operations. After six weeks of boot camp in Norfolk he was assigned to a platoon in Bremerton, Washington navy yard. He was assigned to the USS Nevada and then transferred to the battleship USS Tennessee as Seaman First Class and one of the gunnery crew on a five inch .51 caliber casemate broadside gun. From Bremerton, WA he sailed to Pearl Harbor. Mr. Branson was at Pearl Harbor for approximately one year before the attack by the Japanese.

He made a couple trips back to the States on the USS Tennessee for additional gunnery training and for target practice. Target practice entailed another ship towing a target at some distance, "often almost farther than you could see" on the horizon and then the battleship would fire its guns to hit the target.

The USS Tennessee was tied up on "Battleship Row" at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor. It was positioned inboard of the USS West Virginia, aft of the Maryland and Oklahoma, and forward of the Arizona and Vestal.

The USS Tennessee had three amphibious auxiliary aircraft on the rear deck that were used to fly supplies in for the ship as well as take the mail back and forth to land. The rear deck was a short distance so these aircraft had to be launched by catapults. The catapults were loaded with an explosive and the planes shot off the back of the ship into the air. When the planes returned the ship would turn in a circle, thus creating a calm area of the sea for the amphibious planes to come up close to the ship. The planes were then lifted by crane back up to the top deck. Mr. Branson recalled one time when a plane was capsized by rough sea however, the pilot was rescued. There was one other time when one of these auxiliary aircraft crashed into the ship.
 

The Tennessee's anti-aircraft guns were firing continuously and so they never stopped loading the ammunition on the hoists. They were brought cold sandwiches while they kept loading. Finally on Monday they were released to go topside and help unload a "Lighter" which is a barge bringing more ammunition onto the Tennessee. That was the first time he had seen the death and destruction that had occurred. The USS Arizona was burning as was the oil-covered water. The USS Oklahoma had capsized with its screws tilting towards the sky and the USS West Virginia was listing over against the Tennessee. He saw bodies floating in the water face down. The sight was unbelievable to him. He talked of the people still inside the Oklahoma below deck and how they cut through the ship's hull to get the men out. "They were the lucky ones", he said. Some of the navy yard workers came over to the Tennessee to get water for the survivors. He remembers being in total darkness for more than 24 hours.

When asked how he kept in touch with his family Mr. Branson said that after the attacks they were given postcards to send home and the postcards had a checklist that they could check off their status i.e. "I am wounded but ok" or "I am alright". He said his sister recalls getting his postcard on Christmas Eve 1941 saying that he was alright and not wounded and it was the best Christmas present she had ever gotten.

The USS Tennessee was pinned between the West Virginia and the Arizona. Two to three weeks later the quay that the ships were anchored to were able to be dynamited to free the Tennessee. It sailed from Pearl Harbor and a torpedo was fired at her from a Japanese submarine but it missed its mark. The Tennessee sailed back to Bremerton, WA for repairs where Mr. Branson was transferred to submarine chasing school in Miami Florida. He was assigned to two other locations and was on a repair ship in San Diego, CA when the war ended. It was the biggest relief of his life. He completed his service with the US Navy on that repair ship in the Philippine Islands and was discharged from the Navy at the Jacksonville FL Naval Air Station.

After the service Mr. Branson returned to Asheville NC where he took a bookkeeping machine operator job and then went to work for the civilian department of the US Air Force Weather Service in Asheville. At that time the operation was located at the Grove Arcade but now is located in the Federal Building on Patton Avenue. He retired from there after 28 years of service.

Mr. Branson proudly showed me his Pearl Harbor ring with a blue spinella stone that symbolizes a bomb burst. "December 7, 1941, Remember Pearl Harbor" is engraved on the ring along with the Pearl Harbor Survivor Association. He also has a "I survived Pearl Harbor" license plate and he says he often gets honks and waves from people on the road.

Mr. Branson replied in response to my question "How did your experience affect your life?" with "I escaped with my life". As for lessons to be passed on to future generations he said "We can forgive but we can never forget".

PERSONAL WITNESS OF THE BOMBING OF PEARL HARBOR

Pearl Harbor

Sunday, December 7, 1941 dawned bright and warm with only a few puffy white scattered clouds, a typical Hawaiian day. As a Seaman First Class stationed aboard the battleship USS Tennessee and assigned to a topside deck division, I awoke on that particular morning to the usual Sunday "holiday routine". At about 0755» as we were sitting around the mess tables relaxing over coffee and the comic strips and awaiting Colors, we were all startled to hear a series of heavy explosions a few feet away on Ford Island. Several of us stepped through an open hatch to the main deck just in time to observe one of the hangars erupt in a huge ball of flame and black smoke as a great many Japanese dive bombers, torpedo planes and fighters swept low over the harbor, dropping bombs and strafing everything in sight. My first reaction was that they were our own planes and the pilots were making a terrible mistake on their bombing practice. We realized right away that this was the real thing and not a drill, when the rising sun emblem became clearly visible on the wing tips. Our ship, being tucked away inboard of the West Virginia, aft of the Maryland and Oklahoma, and just forward of the Arizona and Vestal, was in one of the best protected positions of any of the battleships. However, we still received major damage from several bomb hits, one of which killed the captain of the West Virginia, Captain Bennion, as he stood on his signal bridge.

My battle station was a part of the gun crew on one of the 5 inch 51 cal. casemate broadside guns, which would have been ineffective since it could not be brought to bear on the attacking planes. A number of us were sent below to the magazines and assigned to pass ammunition at the various anti-aircraft gun hoists. During the next 24-30 hours, we were dogged down inside this water-tight compartment about three decks below the water line. Most of us were dressed in the uniform of the day which was white shorts, skivvy shirts and black shoes. Unable to see the carnage topside, we were more or less kept informed of the progress by telephone talkers who were in communication with several gun mounts, not to mention the use of our own imaginations with each blast and concussion coming down through the ammunition hoists. The air inside our compartment became so fouled with oily smoke from the burning Arizona and West Virginia that we were ordered to put on gas masks. It became difficult to see the man along-side of us, but we continued to keep the ammunition supplied to the gun mounts. When the Arizona blew up, a rumor spread that the explosion was that of our own main batteries being fired at an enemy aircraft carrier outside the harbor.

Next morning, Monday, dawned bleak and overcast, a gloomy cloudy day, and some of us were released to go topside as a working party to transfer ammunition from a lighter to our ship. Only then did I realize the amount of death and destruction everywhere. The West Virginia settled to the bottom with its superstructure ablaze and listing precariously toward the Tennessee, the Arizona lay twisted and burning furiously in a grotesque mass of steel, the Oklahoma lay only yards forward of us, capsized, her keel and screws pointing skyward, many of her crew still alive and trapped inside. The devastation and havoc was almost beyond comprehension.

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