Retired Navy Cmdr. Bryan dies, helped bring USS Yorktown to South Carolina Lowcountry
BY ALLISON L. BRUCE
Of The Post and Courier Staff November 12, 2004

Retired Navy Cmdr. James T. Bryan Jr., known as Jim to his friends, is credited as the man whose passionate drive brought the aircraft carrier Yorktown to the Charleston area and turned it into the memorial it is today at Patriots Point.

Bryan died Tuesday morning in Chapel Hill, N.C. He was 88.

Bryan served on the USS Yorktown during World War II. He was an ordnance officer, directing the loading of bombs on planes.

Bryan met his wife, Norma, when he was in ordnance school in Bremerton, Wash., before the war started. She was the daughter of his commanding officer.

He served with the Navy during the war and then went to work in New York. From his kitchen, Bryan sent out the letters that started the US Navy, which held its first reunion in New York in 1948, said Jay Bryan, the eldest of his three children.

Bryan remembers his father's crusade to save the Yorktown when he learned that the ship was scheduled to be scrapped.

"Besides my mother, he was in love with what he called the second lady of his life, the Yorktown, the Fighting Lady," Bryan said.

Friends and family remember his will to save the ship.

His drive came from wanting to see that the sailors who served on the Yorktown were recognized, said retired Rear Adm. Jim Flatley, former executive director of Patriots Point. His father and Bryan served together on the Yorktown.

Bryan pushed to make the Yorktown a memorial for all who had died aboard aircraft carriers, not just the Yorktown. Though many were involved in building the museum inside the ship and restoring it from an empty husk, Bryan led the effort.

"That was his skill," Jay Bryan said. "He persuaded others this was important. His energy and ideas pulled other people in."

Bryan rallied the US Navy starting in 1973, first trying to get Virginia to acquire the ship. That failed to pass the state Legislature, but Bryan learned South Carolina was appropriating $4 million for a naval and maritime museum and made that his new mission, Jay Bryan said.

In May 1975, the Yorktown came to South Carolina. Bryan came down to meet it as it arrived in port.

"He was a dynamic person," said Joe Sharkey, who met Bryan while serving on the Yorktown. "When he wanted to do something, he went and got it done one way or another."

Sharkey was one of the first US Navy presidents and eventually became a liaison between the association and Patriots Point.

In a message to the US Navy, Flatley said it is little wonder that Bryan's death was during Veterans Day week. There is no other individual who has done what Bryan did to ensure there is some tangible recognition of the service and sacrifice those on aircraft carriers made, Flatley said.

Jay Bryan said his father was unable to return to the Yorktown after suffering a stroke, but that he would be astounded at the volume of people who visit the aircraft carrier and how it's being used.

"That would be a fulfillment of his dreams," he said.

In early October of each year the United States remembers Columbus for his discovery of the new world.  On that same weekend, coincidentally, the thoughts of many modern sailors turn to ceremonies aboard the retired aircraft carrier YORKTOWN at Patriot's Point Naval and Maritime Museum at Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.

  Aboard the "Fighting Lady" during these autumnal ceremonies, emotions run a full range.  Excitement and joy are inspired by reunion with friends and former shipmates.

   Tears flow as the sorrowful strains of the Navy Hymn signal final prayers and the laying of memorial wreathes into the harbor.  And finally, an inner peace pervades veterans and guests as they walk away from the ceremonies and carrier knowing that few moments have been better spent than those just concluded, which were devoted to the reminiscence and honor of friends who gave their lives to preserve freedom.

 Few would argue that any man who was willing to go to war and sacrifice 75% of his life expectancy would not deserve at least some small engraving of his name on a plaque.  Such a project to honor Naval aviators and sailors lost in World War Two, Korea and Vietnam has begun and is well under way.  But, the job is not done.

  Despite the fact that hundreds come each October to pay homage to thousands, Columbus Day weekend would be just another relatively uneventful holiday for veterans if not for one man and his fellow shipmates.

  Although a close scrutiny of his wartime innovations as an ordnance officer would reveal contributions well above normal expectations, James T. Bryan was like many other officers who served in World War Two on carriers.  Too often he was the last person to speak to a pilot about to fly his final mission; too often he saw his shipmates being hit by a plane out of control; too often he had to look into the eyes of a man whose eyes could not longer see.

  Many who experience these sad occurrences returned home with an understandable determination to forget the events that prematurely extinguished the adventure for life for friends.  But James Bryan could not, and did not, forget.

  Desire to accomplish great goals begins with determination, but in any endeavor determination alone is seldom sufficient...even when the goal is to pay due respect and honor others.  Though a series of challenges, Bryan and his former YORKTOWN shipmates have been able to establish a viable reunion group (1948 to present), save their ship from the scrap heap in 1975, a feat even Admiral William Halsey was unable to accomplish for the war's most decorated ship ENTERPRISE- and establish several national carrier aviation memorials aboard YORKTOWN including "The Arlington of Carrier Aviation."

William F. Halsey, Jr. 
Fleet Admiral US Navy 1882-1959
Elected to Carrier Hall of Fame 1989

 

 

  Individual bronze plaques have been dedicated into this "Arlington" for 58 carriers and their lost 5,465 crewmembers.  The goal of the USS US Navy is to honor all men of ships' company and air groups who were lost at sea and over enemy territory and whose only epitaph is a notation of latitude and longitude in the yellowing pages of their ship's log.

  On more than one occasion Jim Bryan has gone into his own pocket to fund projects when the good intentions of others could not equal their ability to honor financial pledges.  The forward portion of the YORKTOWN hanger deck is now a sacred place.  It is certain that the day will come when all we will have...is what we have given away.

"Pappy" Harshman views his "Fame" plaque in 1983.
 Harshman is acknowledged as the premier carrier deck officer.

 

Dr. Steve Ewing, Naval Historian




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