HUBERT B. HARDEN, CDR, USN

Hubert Harden '35

Date of birth: January 1, 1911

Date of death: January 31, 1947

Age: 36

Lucky Bag

From the 1935 Lucky Bag:

HUBERT BOYD HARDEN

Verdon, Nebraska

"Bert" "Herb" "Hugh" "Pete"

BEING raised on an isolated farm has one big advantage—it develops a healthy curiosity about the world. Bert has spent four years satisfying that curiosity by getting a finger in every pie that's passed. He knows more of his classmates than the Academy Register and feels at home at anybody's tea-fight. We're afraid Bert doesn't take women seriously. He's always dragging one—or another. And speaking of smooth lines, he must have gotten his from a book. Maybe two books—he not only has the nerve to read fairly good ones occasionally, but to claim he enjoys them. He plays a little tennis too, and football, but we still think his forte is throwing the Bull.

Class Football 4, 3, 1. Class Tennis 2. Log Board 2, 1. Associate Editor Lucky Bag 2, 1. Hop Committee 1. 4 Stripes.

HUBERT BOYD HARDEN

Verdon, Nebraska

"Bert" "Herb" "Hugh" "Pete"

BEING raised on an isolated farm has one big advantage—it develops a healthy curiosity about the world. Bert has spent four years satisfying that curiosity by getting a finger in every pie that's passed. He knows more of his classmates than the Academy Register and feels at home at anybody's tea-fight. We're afraid Bert doesn't take women seriously. He's always dragging one—or another. And speaking of smooth lines, he must have gotten his from a book. Maybe two books—he not only has the nerve to read fairly good ones occasionally, but to claim he enjoys them. He plays a little tennis too, and football, but we still think his forte is throwing the Bull.

Class Football 4, 3, 1. Class Tennis 2. Log Board 2, 1. Associate Editor Lucky Bag 2, 1. Hop Committee 1. 4 Stripes.

Loss

From The Mason City Globe-Gazette from Mason City, Iowa on February 4, 1947:

COMDR. HUBERT HARDEN
IOWAN DIES IN FLORIDA CRASH
Comdr. Harden's Plane Falls Near Pensacola
Iowa Falls—Comdr. Hubert Boyd Harden, 35, who was killed in a routine flight off the coast of Pensacola, Fla., Friday, was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Harden of Iowa Falls. The family has received no details of the accident except that the engine failed. The plane was approximately 10 miles off the coast. The body was recovered a few minutes after the accident. Comdr. Harden was graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1935. He was on duty in the Pacific when the war with Japan started. He participated in many of the major engagements in the Pacific. He is survived by his wife, a son, Hubert, Jr.; his parents; 2 sisters, Mrs. Lee Hart of Iowa Falls, and Mrs. Dwight Griffiths of Auburn, Nebr.; and a brother, Clyde, Jr., a student at Grinnell college, Grinnell.

The date of the crash was January 31, 1947 and he was piloting a F6F fighter. He was the Air Officer aboard USS Saipan (CVL 48), which was training student pilots in the period September 1946 to April 1947.

Other Information

He was commanding officer of Air Group (CAG) 1; he was flying from USS Bennington (CV 20).

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Hubert graduated from Verdon high school in 1929 and attended Technical high school in Omaha, Nebraska, before attending the Naval Academy.
In November 1934, Hubert took the examination for a Rhodes Scholarship (the two-year scholarship is for study in Oxford, England.) He was one of 15 candidates who was interviewed in January 1935. Although he was unable to appear before the board due to not receiving leave from the Academy, he had interviewed personally with each committee member. However, two others were chosen to represent Nebraska.
During his last year at the Academy, he was Battalion commander of the third battalion, and as such, he wore four gold stripes and a star on his sleeve. Only two midshipmen in his class ranked higher. After graduation, he reported to USS Pennsylvania at San Pedro, California.
In June 1938, he was on a 3-week leave from USS Yorktown, at Naval Operating Base Norfolk, before going to Pensacola to take a course in aviation.
In 1941 Hubert was chief landing officer on the carrier Enterprise based at Pearl Harbor. His brother Clyde was stationed on the USS Brazos. Clyde was in San Diego but shortly left for the Alaskan waters.
In the Sunday World-Herald Nov/Dec 1942, a story appeared by Eugene Burns regarding the November 12 to 15 attempt by the Japanese to wrest control of the Solomons from the Americans. Hubert, air operations officer, “gave a most accurate report on the aerial war in the Pacific. … Martin Carmody flew his Douglas Dauntless back to the Japanese convoy and his bomb was a near miss off the stern of one transport. His group attacked other units, causing heavy damage to two heavy cruisers, perhaps sinking one of them. It was a raging furnace when the fliers left.” As an air officer, Hubert was the contact man between the staff and the fliers who must carry out the commands.
From The Courier, Iowa Falls, Iowa on February 11, 1943:

Iowa Falls Naval Officer Lauds Skill and Courage of South Pacific Pilots
Lieut. H. B. Harden Has Been On Carrier That Has Hit Japanese Hard.
Lieut. Hubert B. Harden, N. S. N., lauded the skill and courage of the pilots who have been on active duty in the South Pacific since the war began when he visited his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Harden, in Iowa Falls Wednesday.
Lieut. Harden, who has been on duty in the South Pacific since the war began, has been air operations officer on an aircraft carrier for the last 10 months.
The aircraft carrier on which he has served has inflicted a terrific amount of damage to the Japs, he stated, and has participated in all the major engagements of the area except the Coral Sea battle.
Wounded, Lands Plane.
Among the interesting incidents he related was the one about the pilot who made a successful landing on the carrier, then waved for help. He had been wounded – there were fragments of bullets in one ankle – but he was able to bring his plane in safely despite the injury.
On several occasions, during the first year of the war, planes were landed successfully on the carrier, but when the crew members were removed, the planes were pushed overboard because they were too bullet-ridden to be salvaged.
One time a pilot from a near-by cruiser failed to locate his ship and after a routine patrol he was given up as lost. Four days later he was rescued by a task force which happened to be in the same general area. The pilot had lost his way and was nearly out of gas, so stayed afloat by means of pontoons until rescuers arrived.
Dramatic Rescue.
At Midway, Lieutenant Harden related, one pilot was given up as lost but the following day the carrier’s task force found him afloat in a rubber boat. The plane which rescued him merely slowed down and did not lose its place in formation.
Lieutenant Harden visited his wife and six-month-old son, Hubert B. Harden, jr., in Galveston, Tex., en route to Iowa Falls. It was the first time he had seen his son. He has been ordered to report to Jacksonville, Fla., where he will instruct in naval navigation.
This is the first visit Lieutenant Harden has made in Iowa Falls since the summer of 1939.

In May 1943, Hubert was promoted to lieutenant commander. At that time, he was in the command at the naval air station at Miami, Florida.
At the end of the war, in mid-October 1945, Commander Hubert “led a massive air parade of 1,000 naval planes over Japan shortly after hostilities ceased. He repeated the impressive air show over the battleship Missouri when the Japanese surrender was signed. He will once more lead the mighty aerial parade over San Francisco during the navy day festivities there next week. … He holds the Navy Cross, three Distinguished Flying Crosses with the Gold Star, the Air Medal and the Legion of Merit.” (From the Falls City Journal, October 17, 1945.)
Four months after his death, on May 29, 1947, the Christian Church in Dawson, Nebraska, retired its flag of 24 stars for WWII veterans with Hubert being the only casualty.

Hubert is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Photographs

From The Courier on May 23, 1943

Navy Cross

From Hall of Valor:

The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Commander Hubert Boyd Harden (NSN: 0-749327), United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Pilot of a carrier-based Navy Fighter Plane and Group Leader in Carrier Air Group ONE (AG-1), in action against major units of the Japanese Fleet in Kure Harbor, Honshu, Japan, on 28 July 1945. Braving intense anti-aircraft fire from enemy Naval and shore batteries, Commander Harden pressed home a determined attack to score a direct bomb hit on the Japanese battleship ISE. In addition, he skillfully coordinated and led the attack of his group and contributed materially to its success in scoring multiple hits on the battleship and on a heavy cruiser, and in returning to its carrier without loss or damage. His courageous leadership and intrepid spirit were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
General Orders: Commander 2d Carrier Task Force: Serial 01723 (September 4, 1945)
Action Date: 28-Jul-45
Service: Navy
Rank: Commander
Company: Naval Fighting Squadron
Regiment: Air Group 1 (AG-1)
Division: U.S.S. Bennington (CV-20)

Award

Unable to locate citations for the three Distinguished Flying Crosses or the Legion of Merit cited in newspaper reports.

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.