1908-1909 NAVY SHAPSHOOTER MEDAL
Captain
United States Navy Captain Mervyn Sharp Bennion was born in Vernon, Tooele County, Utah, a small farming and stock raising community on the edge of the desert on May 5th 1887, to Israel and Jeannette Sharp Bennion. Mervyn worked on his Uncle Archie’s Nevada ranch as a teenager and graduated from Latter Day Saints high school in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Mervyn reached Annapolis in June, 1906, and was put through the meticulous and trying experience of getting outfitted, drilled and marshaled about. Soon he sailed on a few weeks cruise down Chesapeake Bay on the tall-masted schooner U.S.S. Severn, where he was drilled in nautical terms and practices, particularly in climbing masts, furling and reefing sails, in rope lore, in swabbing decks and standing watch.
June 23rd 1906
Following graduation on June 3rd 1910, he served the two years at sea, then required by law before commissioning, on the USS California and USS Cincinnati, and upon receiving his commission on March 7, 1912, was assigned engineering duty on board the California.
From April 1912 until September 1915 he continued duty afloat, serving in USS California, USS Annapolis, USS St. Louis and USS Colorado. He then returned to Annapolis for instruction in Ordnance at the Naval Postgraduate School, continuing the course at the Naval Proving Ground, Indianhead, Maryland, and the Navy Yard, Washington, DC.
March 7th 1912
Detached from the latter on March 1, 1917, he reported to the USS North Dakota, in which he served throughout the first year of World War I.
1915
1918
Duty in connection with fitting out USS New Mexico preceded service on board that battleship from her commissioning, May 30, 1918, until January 4, 1919. He then reported to the Bureau of Ordnance, Navy Department, Washington, DC, where he remained on duty until December 27, 1920.
June 3rd 1921
He then assisted in fitting out USS Maryland at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, and served as her Assistant Fire Control Officer from her commissioning, July 21, 1921, until May 1923.
He next joined the USS Florida, at Annapolis, Maryland, for duty as Gunnery Officer, and upon detachment had brief duty at the Naval Proving Ground, then located at Dahlgren, Virginia. On April 12, 1926 he reported on board the USS Tennessee, for duty as Gunnery Officer.
He remained in that assignment until transferred a year later to duty as Navigator of USS Maryland.
March 5th 1929
Then followed a tour of duty in the Bureau of Ordnance, after which he commanded the USS Bernadou from July to October 1932, and USS Biddle from October 1932 until May 1933. He served briefly as Commander Destroyer Division ONE and as Commander Destroyer Division NINE, and when detached from the latter command on July 22, 1933, joined the Staff of the Commander in Chief, US Fleet, to serve for a year as Fleet Training Officer.
He was a student at the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, from June 1934 until May 1935, and for a year thereafter served on the Staff of that institution.
In June 1936 he joined USS Arizona, remaining in that assignment until transferred in June 1937 to command of USS Nitro.
June 2nd 1938
Another tour of duty in the Bureau of Ordnance, Navy Department, was followed by Captain Bennion’s last command. On June 21, 1941, he was ordered to duty as Commanding Officer of USS West Virginia.
Sunday, December 7th, 1941, at a few minutes before eight, Mervyn was in his cabin shaving preparatory to leaving the ship to go to Sunday School and Fast Meeting in Honolulu when a sailor on watch from the bridge nearby dashed in to report a Japanese air attack approaching at hand. Mervyn instantly gave the commands “Japanese Air Attack! To your battle stations!” Then he ran to his own - the conning tower on the flag bridge. There he verified the readiness of the several gun crews, the preparations for bringing up ammunition from the holds, the preparedness of the other elements of the ships crew for their roles in action. In a minute Japanese torpedo planes flew in close from the outside letting go three torpedoes that struck the West Virginia in rapid succession, tearing a great hole in the exposed side. Almost simultaneously Japanese bombers flew overhead, barely clearing the masts, and hit the West Virginia, once in the region already damaged by the aerial torpedoes and once a deadly blow into the magazine. Fortunately that bomb did not explode; otherwise, the ship would have been blown up as was the Arizona, immediately astern of the West Virginia.
When the first fury of the attack was over, Mervyn, anxious to see better what had happened to his ship, the guns and gun crews before giving orders to meet the developments, stepped out of the door at the rear of the conning tower and started around the lateral walk to the flag bridge. He had scarcely taken two steps when he was hit by a splinter from a bomb, evidently dropped from a high level and exploding on a turret of the battleship Tennessee alongside the West Virginia. This splinter tore off the top of his stomach and apparently a fragment hit his spine and the left hip for he lost the use of legs and the hip appeared to be damaged. He fell to the floor of the walk, got on his back, and with nerves of steel put back in place the entrails that had spilled out,
In a minute or so his plight was observed and a pharmacist’s mate came to place a bandage over the abdomen and to try to ease the pain. It was clear to him and undoubtedly to Mervyn that the wound was beyond any hope of mending, though Mervyn said not a word to indicate he knew he was dying. As soon as the wound was given the simplest dressing Mervyn sent the man below to work with the wounded and refused to be attended further while there was work to be done. As men and officers came to him he briefly asked what was transpiring and gave orders and instructions to meet conditions as they arose. The well-trained crew knew their duties thoroughly. It was easy for him to exercise control.
When the first fury of the attack was over, Mervyn, anxious to see better what had happened to his ship, the guns and gun crews before giving orders to meet the developments, stepped out of the door at the rear of the conning tower and started around the lateral walk to the flag bridge. He had scarcely taken two steps when he was hit by a splinter from a bomb, evidently dropped from a high level and exploding on a turret of the battleship Tennessee alongside the West Virginia. This splinter tore off the top of his stomach and apparently a fragment hit his spine and the left hip for he lost the use of legs and the hip appeared to be damaged. He fell to the floor of the walk, got on his back, and with nerves of steel put back in place the entrails that had spilled out,
In a minute or so his plight was observed and a pharmacist’s mate came to place a bandage over the abdomen and to try to ease the pain. It was clear to him and undoubtedly to Mervyn that the wound was beyond any hope of mending, though Mervyn said not a word to indicate he knew he was dying. As soon as the wound was given the simplest dressing Mervyn sent the man below to work with the wounded and refused to be attended further while there was work to be done. As men and officers came to him he briefly asked what was transpiring and gave orders and instructions to meet conditions as they arose. The well-trained crew knew their duties thoroughly. It was easy for him to exercise control.
The ship was well handled to prevent capsizing and to keep damage from fire to a minimum, Admiral Furlong, one of the commanders at Pearl Harbor, gave the West Virginia’s guns credit for bringing down 20 or 30 Japanese planes. Only two lives were lost from the ship’s complement of officers and men. . Captain Bennion and one seaman. The wounded were attended to promptly and evacuated from the ship with dispatch. Mervyn was courageous and cheerful to the last moment of consciousness and his spirit was reflected in the conduct of his crew. When the first attack was over he allowed himself to be placed on a cot and the cot to be moved under a protecting shelter on the deck. There he remained during the second Japanese attack which occurred an hour after the first one. He resisted all efforts to remove him from the bridge with a firmness and vigor that astonished officers who thought they knew him well but did not realize how much force there lay behind his gentle ways.
He talked only of the ship and the men, how the fight was going, what guns were out of action, how to get them in operation again, casualties in the gun crews and how to replace them, who was wounded, what care the wounded were receiving and provisions for evacuating them from the ship, the fate of other ships, the number of enemy planes shot down, the danger of fire from burning oil drifting around the West Virginia from the exploded Arizona, satisfaction over the handling of the ship, satisfaction with the effectiveness of the gun crews in shooting down attacking planes, satisfaction with the conduct under fire of officers and men of the ship. His only expression of regrets were of horror for the treachery of the Japanese and of concern because of this paralyzing loss of warships.
He talked only of the ship and the men, how the fight was going, what guns were out of action, how to get them in operation again, casualties in the gun crews and how to replace them, who was wounded, what care the wounded were receiving and provisions for evacuating them from the ship, the fate of other ships, the number of enemy planes shot down, the danger of fire from burning oil drifting around the West Virginia from the exploded Arizona, satisfaction over the handling of the ship, satisfaction with the effectiveness of the gun crews in shooting down attacking planes, satisfaction with the conduct under fire of officers and men of the ship. His only expression of regrets were of horror for the treachery of the Japanese and of concern because of this paralyzing loss of warships.
Thus passed an hour and a half. About 9:30 A.M. fire broke out in the kitchen, lockers and officers quarters beneath the flag bridge and began to envelope it in stifling black smoke and bursts of flame. This cut off from escape Mervyn, Lt. Commander C.V. Ricketts, a pharmacist’s mate and Lt. Comdr. White, whom he had permitted to stay with him. Mervyn had grown weaker from continuous loss of blood. The officers tied him on a ladder and twice tried to lower him to the deck below to get him away from the fire. The aft part of the ship was free of fire, but the smoke and flames swept over the forward deck to make it impossible for men to receive him, At this point the smoke and flame on the flag bridge became so terrible that all of the small group concluded their end had come, but just as they were being overpowered by suffocation a small gust of wind came seemingly out of nowhere and gave them air and vision, Quickly they seized Mervyn and by superhuman effort carried him up a ladder to the navigation bridge to a corner at the rear that seemed to be free from smoke. While being carried up the ladder he had lost consciousness, but as soon as they laid him out flat on the bridge floor the blood returned to his head and he told them to leave him and save themselves if that were possible. They made him as comfortable as they could and leaving the pharmacist’s mate at his side the two officers spent the next half hour trying unsuccessfully to put out the fire. Twenty minutes after they left Mervyn the mate reported that Mervyn had stumped over and breathed “I’m gone.”
The mate went back and, after 10 minutes, discovering no signs of life he so reported and the faithful and heroic little group caught a rope swung to them by an Ensign Graham, who had climbed a crane on the side of the ship to rescue them. They crawled hand over hand above the blazing fire, a distance of 50 feet to the crane, and then climbed down to safety. This occurred about 10:15 or 10:30, or more than two hours after Mervyn was mortally wounded.
In the meantime, on the battleship alongside, a crowd of men, most of them Mervyn’s men, watched the lone, white-clad figure lying on the navigation bridge of his ship. A young Ensign Delano, a mere boy, deeply attached to Mervyn, watched for hours. He said that twice in the first half hour after Mervyn was left alone he saw him stir, rise up on his elbows, look about and then drop back. Perhaps imagination rather than straining eyes saw these moves of the lonely figure. The grandeur of this heroic death scene as it unfolded profoundly moved the men of the stricken fleet.
In the meantime, on the battleship alongside, a crowd of men, most of them Mervyn’s men, watched the lone, white-clad figure lying on the navigation bridge of his ship. A young Ensign Delano, a mere boy, deeply attached to Mervyn, watched for hours. He said that twice in the first half hour after Mervyn was left alone he saw him stir, rise up on his elbows, look about and then drop back. Perhaps imagination rather than straining eyes saw these moves of the lonely figure. The grandeur of this heroic death scene as it unfolded profoundly moved the men of the stricken fleet.
Medal of Honor Citation:
“For conspicuous devotion to duty, extraordinary courage, and complete disregard of his own life, above and beyond the call of duty, during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. As Commanding Officer of the USS West Virginia, after being mortally wounded, he evidenced apparent concern only in fighting and saving his ship, and strongly protested against being carried from the bridge.”
“For conspicuous devotion to duty, extraordinary courage, and complete disregard of his own life, above and beyond the call of duty, during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. As Commanding Officer of the USS West Virginia, after being mortally wounded, he evidenced apparent concern only in fighting and saving his ship, and strongly protested against being carried from the bridge.”
