Each year when the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor a group of local residents remember one of their own lost on that day. Broadus Franklin West was morning Simpsonville South Carolina to Broadus Franklin and FES Dell would West on December 9, 1915. He was one of more than 2400 Americans who were killed on that day of infamy.

While serving as a Seman first-class aboard the USS Arizona on that fateful day on December 7, 1941 he became one of the first casualties of the second world war.

Broadus joined the Navy on February 8, 1940 at a recruiting station in Raleigh North Carolina. It would be almost 2 years before World War II began with the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Seman West was assigned to the USS Arizona on January 8, 1941. His duties as a seman first-class found him responsible for knots, steering and signaling as well as gunnery duties. He is officially listed as unrecoverable among the 900+ souls still on board the USS Arizona.

The following awards were issued posthumously to semen Broadus Franklin West: Purple Heart, American Defense service medal with fleet clasp, Asiatic Pacific campaign medal with star, and the World War II victory medal.

In a book written by Donald Stratton who miraculously survived the surprise attack, he insists, “I’m no hero. The real heroes are still out there in the harbor.”●