Private Ralph Brantley

Ralph Brantley was a private in the 180^th Infantry Regiment in the 45^th Infantry Division. He was born on an unkown date in 1922 in Georgia. Ralph Brantley had a brother, Roy, born in the same year. Roy was possibly his twin brother who was born on November 13, 1922.[1] As Roy was always listed before Ralph in the censuses there is reason to believe he was the older brother which would have made them twins, as opposed to simply siblings born within the same year. Ralph Brantley’s parents were Robert D. Brantley and Bealuh Pearl Aultman who married in Houston, Georgia on 18 December 1902.[2]  Robert Brantley was born in 1878 and worked at a beef market for at least part of his time in Georgia. Among Robert’s and Pearl’s other children were Willie Joe born in 1903, Johnnie or Joseph in 1905, Fred in 1907, James T. in 1909, Evelyn in 1912, and Gussy in 1913, making Roy and Ralph Brantley the two youngest children by almost a decade.[3]

Ralph Brantley’s childhood was characterized by moving; in 1930 the family rented a house in Spartanburg, South Carolina where Robert worked as a foreman at a feed and grains store.[4] By 1935, the family again relocated to Duval Florida where Robert switched to an advertising job, and later again to a carpenter, while Ralph was in school.[5] Ralph finished with an 8^th grade education in 1938 at the age of 16. By 1939 he worked as a messenger boy at a factory.[6] After working as a factory boy for about a year he became unemployed, but by 1941 he worked as an upholsterer.[7] He probably met his wife, Elder Mae Sands, at this time as they married in 1942.[8] Not much information is known about Elder except that she was a sales woman in 1942. Ralph was still living with his parents when his father died in 1943, leaving his mother dependent upon him. Perhaps this death was what encouraged him to enlist on 20 September in Blanding, Florida. It is not known what happened to his wife, but when he enlisted he declared himself single with dependents.[9]

            The 45^th Division was known as the Thunderbird Division and participated in the fourth assault landing at St. Maxime’s on 15 August 1944. The infantry worked its way across Southern France and on September 21, 1944 Ralph Brantley was killed in combat just a little over a year after enlisting.[10]