Benjamin B. Talley

Talley was born in Greer County, Oklahoma on July 29, 1903. He graduated from high school in Enid, Oklahoma, and attended Oklahoma A&M College. Talley graduated from Georgia Tech in 1925 with an electrical engineering degree, and from the Graduate Engineering School of Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1926.[2][3][4] Talley joined the United States Army in June 1926.[4] He was married twice and survived by a son.[2]

As a lieutenant, Talley was stationed with the 2nd Engineer Battalion in Texas and Colorado before attending the Engineer School in Virginia.[2] He was then involved in the Nicaragua Canal Survey and assisted in the aftermath of the 1931 Nicaragua earthquake.[5] Talley was assigned to put out the ensuing fire after the earthquake hit Managua.[6] When Talley returned to the United States, he worked to make maps based on aerial photographs for nine years, publishing the textbook Photogrammetry. He also invented a 'portable stereocomparagraph' and lectured at Harvard University.[2][3]

In 1940 Talley traveled to Yakutat, Alaska and supervised the construction of Elmendorf Air Force Base.[3][5] In 1941 he became engineer for Army construction in Alaska, supervising the construction of a secret base on Umnak. As a result of the base's construction, Dutch Harbor was protected from a Japanese attack. Talley continued to work on bases in Alaska.[3] His obituary wrote that he "supervised virtually all Army and Army Air Corps projects in Alaska as the military prepared for the Japanese invasion of Alaska."[5] On January 11, 1943 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for "exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service as officer in charge of Alaska construction".[7]

In June 1943 Talley traveled to Europe, where he helped plan the Normandy landings and served as the V Corps' deputy chief of staff. He was present at the landing on Omaha Beach, reporting on the landing's progress. He was given command of the beach, overseeing supplies as they flowed into the region. As commander of the area, he oversaw up to 63,000 soldiers— responsibility that the Anchorage Daily News considered was typically held by a three star general. For this he earned the Legion of Merit and the Distinguished Service Cross. In December 1944 he assumed command of the 1st Engineer Special Brigade.[2][3][8] Talley was awarded the Croix de guerre with palm in 1945.[3]

Under Talley's command, the brigade headquarters returned to England, and embarked for the United States on 23 December. It arrived at Fort Dix, New Jersey, on 30 December. After four weeks leave, it reassembled at Fort Lewis, Washington. Part of the brigade headquarters went by air to Leyte to join the XXIV Corps for the invasion of Okinawa—which Talley helped plan, while the rest traveled directly to Okinawa on the USS Achernar.[5][9] The brigade was in charge of unloading on Okinawa from 9 April to 31 May. It then prepared for the invasion of Japan. This did not occur due to the end of the war, and the brigade landed in Korea on 12 September 1945.[10] Talley was deputy commander of the Army Special Forces in Korea after victory over Japan.[2]

Talley was subsequently district engineer for Huntington, West Virginia and later Louisville, Kentucky. He then attended the National War College and was "chief of the estimates branch of the intelligence division on the Army General Staff", briefing the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the Soviet Union's military capacity during the Korean War and other relevant intelligence.[2] In March 1952 it was reported that Talley had been promoted to division engineer of the North Atlantic Division by Lieutenant General Lewis A. Pick. As division engineer, he oversaw construction projects totaling around $900 million.[11] On April 7, 1955 he was promoted to brigadier general.[12] Talley became division engineer of the Mediterranean Division, Nouasseur Air Base in 1955. He retired as a brigadier general on April 30, 1956.[11]

After retirement, Talley lived in New York City and Oklahoma.[2] He worked for Raymond International and supervised the construction of 11 buildings in Brasília as the Brazilian capital was under construction. He was resident manager of the Metcalf and Eddy group, and oversaw the group as it rebuilt Anchorage, Alaska after the 1964 Alaska earthquake and worked in Da Nang during the Vietnam War.[5][13][14] In the 1980s, he was on a committee advising on the documentary Alaska at War, which premiered in 1986. Talley died on November 27, 1998 in Homer, Alaska, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.[2]

• The Benjamin B. Talley papers