Roll of Honor

Brantley, Harold Hughes

Branch of Service: Navy
Era: WWII
Location of Burial: Willow Mount Cemetery
Town of Burial: Shelbyville, TN

He was born in Shelbyville, TN and graduated from Central High School. He came to Tennessee State College STC in the fall 1940 and majored in science. He also took courses at  the Anderson Aircraft School in Nashville He joined the Raider Band under Chief Valdez and became the drum major. When not in school he worked at the Brantley-Renegar drug store in Shelbyville. When WWII was declared in1941, he joined the Naval Reserve Air Force and went on active duty in March 1942, training at Great Lakes Naval Station in Illinois. He was assigned to the 5th Fleet in the Pacific. He was assigned as a Gun Turret Gunner in a small Navy fighter/bomber a turret gunner, flying from an aircraft carrier during the Battle of the Gilbert Islands. A Japanese Army ammunition dump on Makin Island was their target November 20, 1943. As a turret gunner in the South Pacific on a Gilbert Islands operation, Brantley’s plane exploded in midair while bombing an ammunition dump on Makin on November 20, 1943. He had four brothers and two sisters.

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