Ships
- USS Enterprise (CV-6) Captain from 21 October 1942 · Relieved on 7 April 1943
Osborne Bennett Hardison was born on 22 December 1892 in Wadesboro, Anson County, North Carolina. He was the second of six children of William Cameron Hardison and Harriet Bennett Hardison. He went to private school until he was thirteen and spent one semester at Horner Military Academy. At fourteen he entered the University of North Carolina, where he took an A.B. in 1911. The next year he was appointed to the Naval Academy. He graduated in 1916, one of seven honor men in his class.
His first ship was the battleship Texas, under Captain Victor Blue, a fellow North Carolinian. He stayed in her through the First World War and until 1920. From February 1918 Texas served with the British Grand Fleet in the Sixth Battle Squadron, and she was present at the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet. After shorter tours, including one in the presidential yacht Mayflower, he turned to aviation in 1923. He flew with the squadrons at Hampton Roads, taught engineering aeronautics at the Academy, and in August 1927 took command of squadrons in the first Lexington. He served in the Bureau of Aeronautics and as aviation officer in the office of the Chief of Naval Operations. In June 1938 he became executive officer of Ranger. A year later he was aviation officer and then fleet aviator on the staff of the Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet. He commanded NAS Anacostia, and in September 1941 became aide to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air. In that role he represented the Assistant Secretary at the opening of the Navy Pre-Flight School at his own university in Chapel Hill.
On 21 October 1942 Captain Hardison took command of Enterprise (CV-6). At that moment she and Hornet were the only American carriers left in the Pacific. Five days later, at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on 26 October, Japanese dive bombers and torpedo planes attacked his ship. Enterprise took three bomb hits but dodged every torpedo, and her guns and those of the battleship South Dakota shot down many of the attackers. Hornet was lost; Enterprise survived. His Navy Cross citation reads: "Although subjected to terrific enemy dive-bombing and torpedo attack, Captain Hardison skillfully maneuvered to save the ENTERPRISE from serious damage or destruction and by his brilliant tactics and expert seamanship succeeded in inflicting heavy damage on Japanese surface vessels and aircraft." Three weeks later, still under repair, Enterprise fought in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on 13–15 November. Her torpedo planes helped finish the battleship Hiei, and her aircraft helped sink the heavy cruiser Kinugasa. The ship received the Presidential Unit Citation.
He was promoted to rear admiral (uboat.net gives 29 November 1942) and left Enterprise on 7 April 1943. From 21 April 1943 to 10 January 1944 he commanded Fleet Air, South Pacific, during the long air war over the Solomons, and he received the Legion of Merit for building up its resources "in the forward area." From January 1944 he was Chief of Naval Air Primary Training. He set up a basic course meant to give every future naval aviator full mastery of aircraft in flight, and the Pre-Flight School at Chapel Hill was part of his command. In February 1945 he gave the university's commencement address.
In September 1945 he became Commander, Aircraft, Philippine Sea Frontier, and he represented the Navy at the celebration of Philippine independence. In 1946 he commanded Carrier Division 5, supporting the occupation forces in the Far East. He then served as the Navy's Chief of Pan American Affairs. In January 1950 he became Commander, Naval Forces, Marianas, with additional duty as deputy military governor of the Bonin and Volcano Islands. In August 1951 he took Fleet Air, Jacksonville, and he finished as special assistant to the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air). He retired on 1 January 1954 and was advanced to vice admiral for his combat awards.
In 1926 he married Ruth Morgan of Washington, the daughter of the surgeon Dr. William Gerry Morgan. They had two sons, Osborne Bennett Jr. and William Gerry Morgan. UNC voted him an honorary degree for its sesquicentennial in 1945, but the Pacific kept him away. He received the LL.D. in 1950, the year his son Osborne graduated there. The Charlotte Observer remembered him as "the wartime skipper of the USS Enterprise when the carrier was fighting the Pacific war virtually alone." He was killed in a street accident in Washington, D.C., in 1959, aged 66, and at his wish was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Date flags:
Date of death: NCpedia gives 16 March 1959. A non-authoritative wiki gives 16 February 1959. Check against the Arlington record.
USNA year: an OCR'd 1943 Evening Star article reads "1912." That is the year he entered; NCpedia and Hall of Valor give the Class of 1916.
Sources
NCpedia, "Hardison, Osborne Bennett" (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography; citing Grant, Alumni History of UNC; Powell, North Carolina Lives; Raleigh News and Observer).
Military Times Hall of Valor: Navy Cross and Legion of Merit citations.
Evening Star (Washington), 26 March 1943, p. 2.
Charlotte Observer obituary (newspapers.com clipping 152618227).
uboat.net, Allied Warship Commanders: Osborne Bennett Hardison (Enterprise events, Santa Cruz and 14 Nov 1942).