Earl L. Hardison and Harold W. Hardison entered the US Army in April 1942. We volunteered for US Army Air Force and we both sign up at the same time. We were sent to St. Petersburg, Florida for basic training. When we started training, we talked about the fact that we were our parents' only children, and that if something happened with us in the same outfit, we could both be killed. So we talked with our CO, and we separated. Earl was put in a B25 squadron as an engineer and I stayed in B24's. After training we were sent to the Pacific. His outfit ended up on one island and I wound up on another. As the U. S. pushed the Japanese nearer to the homeland, Earl was in the Philippines at Clark Field. Their target was a little island called Negras that had a small Japanese airstrip. Earl's squadron bombed the field and came back strafing it. One of his engines was hit and his plane plowed into a mountain on January 1 1945. After that, my outfit was sent to Okinawa, and soon after, his outfit came to Okinawa too. I talked with a fellow who had been on the same mission and flying on Earl's wing. He said that Earl's plane, with the engine out, did not have the power to clear the mountain.

Except the time in training in Florida and Texas, all my time was spent in the Pacific on various islands as a gunner and dispatcher (and a lot of other jobs). I was discharged on March,1945

Note: The above account was submitted by former State Senator Harold W. Hardison in summer of 2007.
Herman H. Mc Lawhorn, Curator.