WWII vet: Even hard times were good times
When George Brannon was 19 years old, he hitchhiked from his parents’ farm in Oklahoma to the recruiting office in Tulsa. He wanted to fly and he wanted to see combat. Only one of those things happened.
Brannon had just graduated from high school when Pearl Harbor was attacked.
“Pearl Harbor changed everything,” he said. Three of his brothers also enlisted and two of them were wounded within a week of each other, although on different sides of the world. All four brothers survived the war.
Brannon was told he couldn’t fly. There wasn’t a space for him in the program, but he was offered the option of training to be a glider pilot. He started training at Bartlesville, Okla., and then moved on to Stuttgart where there was a big glider school. But while he waited to begin training in Stuttgart, the program was canceled. That gave Brannon the chance to get into flight training, after all.
Most of his class went on to assignments in combat, but
Brannon was sent to instructor school in Alabama. After more training, he spent two years teaching new pilots until he finally got his combat assignment overseas. While he waited to be transferred, the war in Europe ended.
He was reassigned to Guam but first trained in Phoenix, Ariz. The Japanese surrendered before he saw combat in Guam, although he remained there for a year and a half.
After Guam, Brannon left the active service but stayed in the reserves. He was called back to active duty in the early 1950s and, while he served during the Korean conflict, he was never sent to Korea. Instead, he spent several years flying all over Europe. He was stationed in England for about three years and was able to bring his family with him. One of his daughters was born in England and had dual citizenship.
In 1956, Brannon was assigned to a tanker that fueled other aircraft in midair. He spent nine years on that assignment, but it meant a lot of time away from home. During the Cold War, he was sometimes “on alert,” which meant he had to stay at an alert facility and be prepared to board his plane in five minutes.
“When you heard the klaxon, you just went,” he said.
Often he was only home long enough to hand his wife his laundry.
When the tanker assignment ended, he flew a cargo plane to supply the troops in Vietnam.
“You had to be very careful,” he said about his final assignment, “There was always someone shooting at you.”
By then Brannon had three teenage daughters and his wife had been raising the family with very little help, so he decided it was time to retire. They settled in Omaha, Neb., for the next 18 years.
After a career that gave him the chance to travel all over the world, he chose Omaha because, he said, “I never found any place I liked better than the U.S.”
In the mid-1980s, Brannon moved to Bella Vista. For 25 years, he served with the Bella Vista Honor Guard.
Although he wasn’t one of the founding members, he knew there was a need for an Honor Guard in the area. They went to the funerals of veterans within a radius of 50 miles. They did up to 100 funerals a year. Usually, they provided a rifle salute and folded the flag to present to the next of kin. But they always consulted the family and did what was asked of them. Some people, Brannon said, don’t want the rifle salute. The Honor Guard has always worked for free, although donations are accepted.
Earlier on, they were more likely to march in parades and appear at events, but they don’t do as many now, he said.
Brannon no longer marches with the honor guard — at 94 his knees won’t allow that — but he still helps coordinate their activities.
Looking back, Brannon sees the world has changed and not always for the better.
“We lived in the best of times, even when it was hard times; it’s different now,” he said.