James Ross Hardeman

ames Ross Hardeman was born November 15, 1923 in Melrose, Nacogdoches County, Texas, USA.. The son of Hal Augustine Hardeman Jr. (1901-1970) and Lessie Visla Kendrick (1904-1992). Ross entered the Navy in 1943, he trained at Corpus Christi, Texas, and Morehead, Kentucky. He served aboard the "U.S.S. Marsh" Following a Bermuda shakedown cruise, Marsh conducted training exercises and escorted convoys along the northeast coast. On 25 March she steamed from New York, heading for Plymouth, England, on her first transatlantic convoy. She returned to the east coast 1 May and on the 23d sailed for the north African coast. The escort accompanied two more convoys between those coasts before being assigned to the Mediterranean theater. Entering the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar, 9 July Marsh conducted convoys between North Africa, Malta and southern Italy until mid‑August. On 14 August she sailed from Naples with the assault forces for operation "Anvil," the invasion of southern France. She remained in the Mediterranean for the next month providing gunfire support and convoying supplies in the area. With the successful establishment of another major crack in the crumbling front of the Third Reich, Marsh was reassigned to the Pacific. She departed Mers‑el‑Kebir, Algeria, 28 September, transited the Panama Canal in mid‑October and arrived at Eniwetok 20 December. For the next 5 months she escorted convoys to Guam, Saipan, Ulithi, and Iwo Jima. In May 1945, Marsh joined in the active pacification of bypassed islands in the Marianas. Broadcasting propaganda messages in Japanese and Okinawan, she sailed among the various islands of that group; e.g., Asuncion, Anatahan, Almazan, Sarigan, Maug, and Agrihan, taking on prisoners as they surrendered. Where the broadcasts were not successful, she escorted landing parties and provided gunfire support for the completion of their missions. By mid‑July resistance on some islands remained stiff. Marsh, flagship of the Northern Marianas Expeditionary Force, continued to lead her small force against the holdouts in order to provide safe‑ditch areas for pilots returning to Allied bases from raids on the enemy's home islands. With the securing of the islands, weather stations and aircraft beacons were set up to further aid the pilots. On 11 August, Marsh, detached from the Expeditionary Force, sailed for Okinawa. Resuming escort duties, she steamed back to the Marianas and then on to Tokyo. Departing Tokyo 31 August, she sailed for Pearl Harbor, arriving 24 September. There she took an equipment which transformed her into a mobile power unit. With this new asset she returned to Guam 26 October to provide ship‑to‑shore power services until the end of the year. The destroyer‑escort returned to the United States in early 1946 for shipyard overhaul at San Pedro. After the war Ross worked as a carpenter in Construction, He passed away December 4, 1990 in Nacogdoches Texas. He is buried in the Melrose Methodist Church Cemetery in Melrose, Texas. (Bio submitted by CJ McLaughlin for the Nacogdoches Texas USA Blog)