Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Osborne Bennett Hardison Papers, #3554, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from O. B. Hardison Junior, Department of English, University of North Carolina, October 1961.

Additional Descriptive Resources

A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1a.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, July 2009

This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Aircraft carriers--Pacific Ocean--History--World War, 1939-1945.
• Enterprise (Aircraft carrier : CV-6)
• Hardison, Osborne Bennett, 1892-1959.
• Naval aviation--Study and teaching--United States--History--World War, 1939-1945.
• United States. Navy--Officers--Correspondence.
• World War, 1939-1945--Pacific Ocean--Naval operations.

Osborne Bennett Hardison (1892-1959), native of Wadesboro, N.C., was a career United States naval officer, retiring as vice-admiral. Hardison was the son of William Cameron Hardison and Harriett Eleanor Bennett Hardison. He was educated at the University of North Carolina and the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md. During World War II he commanded the aircraft carrier "Enterprise" in the Pacific, 1942-1943, and received a presidential citation and the Navy Cross for his participation in the Battle of Santa Cruz in the Solomon Islands. In 1944 he returned to the United States to serve as chief of Naval Air Primary Training, based at Fairfax Airport, Kansas City, Kan., and at the Naval Air Station at Glenview, Ill. After the war, Hardison held various positions including Commander, Aircraft, Philippine Sea Frontier, 1945-1946; Commander, Carrier Division Five, 1946; Commander, Seventh Fleet, 1946-1947; Chief of Pan American Affairs and United States Naval Missions, Navy Department, Washington, D.C., 1947-1950; Commander, Naval Forces, Marianas, 1950-1951; and Commander, Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Fla., 1951-1953.

Hardison was married to Ruth Morgan of Washington, D.C. They had two children, Osborne Bennett Junior and William Gerry Morgan Hardison.

The collection includes official and service-related personal letters and papers of Osborne Bennett Hardison. The bulk of the material relates to World War II, when Hardison was commander of the aircraft carrier "Enterprise" in the Pacific, 1942-1943, and later chief of naval aviation training in the United States. The military correspondence and papers concern naval operations and navigational training, naval problems, fleet exercises and maneuvers, the naval air force, and accidents and mishaps involving naval aircraft. There are also reports and other items related to the bombing of the "Enterprise" at the Battle of Santa Cruz in the Solomon Islands. Topics discussed in Hardison's personal correspondence include his encounters with native populations while stationed in various locales, reactions to the administration of Harry S. Truman and its proposed reorganization of military air forces, Hardison's awards and achievements, and the educational aspirations and progress of his son, O. B. Hardison Junior.