Benjamin Branche Talley – Brigadier General, United States Army

From a contemporary press report:

A memorial service will take place at Arlington National Cemetery Old Post Chapel December 16, 1998 at 9 a.m., for BRIGADIER GENERAL BENJAMIN B. TALLEY, US Army Retired, of Washington, DC and Anchor Point, Alaska, who died November 27, 1998 in Alaska at the age of 95. Interment will follow in Arlington National Cemetery.

General Talley was born July 29, 1903 in Oklahoma Territory. He graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology and received a master’s degree through the Westinghouse Graduate Engineering School.

In 1926, he was commissioned as a regular Army officer in the Corps of Engineers and served in the Corps until his retirement in 1956, as Division Engineer of the Mediterranean Division in Morocco. He is known as ”the Father of Military Construction in Alaska” because of the numerous projects built there during World War II. He landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day 1944 and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. He later commanded the First Engineer Brigade for the invasion of Okinawa. After World War II he served as District or Division Engineer in various locations.

In 1964 as a civil engineer, General Talley oversaw the reconstruction of Anchorage and South Central Alaska following the Good Friday earthquake and later supervised heavy construction in Brasilia, Brazil, and construction for the Navy in Viet Nam.

General Talley is survived by his wife, Virginia, of Washington, DC and Anchor Point, AK; a son, Robert E. Talley of Fort Myers, FL; six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren

Instead of flowers, it is suggested that contributions be made either to Anchor Point Senior Citizens, Inc., PO Box 438, Anchor Point, AK 99556, or to the Benjamin B. Talley Scholarship Endowment Fund, Inc., PO Box 6409, Elmendorf AFB, AK 99506-6409. The scholarship endowment fund, named in honor of General Talley, is administered by the Anchorage Post, Society of American Military Engineers.

Colonel Benjamin B. Talley, engineering officer who planned and supervised the construction of all army installations in Alaska, receiving the Distinguished Service Medal from Major-General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., commanding general of the Alaska Defense Command at his headquarters in Alaska. (Library of Congress)

Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard