Oak Valley Township is a rural agricultural area, found four miles west of Hewitt. The people here are honest and hardworking, and in 1941, almost all were family farmers.
Courtesy: Geology.com
On Saturdays, these farming families would travel to Hewitt to replenish supplies, catch up on the latest news over a cold beer, and maybe even kick up their heels at a local barn dance. On the Sabbath, and it was customary to have a large Sunday dinner with family, friends and neighbors; but come Monday, the hard work started once again.
In 1941, Howard Branstner was a strapping 26 year-old bachelor, living on his family farm in Oak Valley Township. He had piercing blue eyes, stood six feet tall, and weighed a solid 167 pounds. Having completed the tenth grade, he was considered well-educated for a farmer.
Howard Branstner before the war.
It is evident, however, that Howard was not content to be a farmer his entire life.Four years earlier, on February 6, 1937, a 22 year-old Howard paid for a correspondence course from the National Radio Institute, based in Washington, D.C.
Howard's receipt for his correspondence course from the National Radio Institute.
Howard's diploma from the National Radio Institute.
Clearly, Howard was making plans for the future. But one day in early December 1941, all of those plans changed. News of a Japanese surprise attack on a little-known naval base crackled and hissed over the radio airwaves some time in the afternoon, perhaps just as the Branstner family finished their Sunday dinner.
Years later, when asked of his thoughts after learning that Pearl Harbor had been attacked, Howard simply said, “I thought, ‘Boy, here we go.’ I knew it was bad.”
The next day, December 8, 1941, a shocked and angry nation listened to President Roosevelt's radio address:
Like so many other young men of his generation, Howard knew his life would never be the same.
