Private First Class Cecil A. Branscom was assigned to the 401st Field Artillery. He died on 9 March 1945 non-battle and is interred at D,46,23, Lorraine American Cemetery, St Avold, France.
Cecil enlisted in the United States Army on 1 February 1944 at Fort Oglesthorpe, Georgia and was assigned to Artillery. He completed basic training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. After basic, he was assigned to the newly formed and activated, 20 April 1944, 212th Field Artillery Group at Fort Riley, Kansas. Cecil was further assigned to the Headquarters Battery, 401st Field Artillery Battalion and finished up training at Fort Benning, Georgia before deploying overseas in February 1945.
The 212th Field Artillery Group operated under the control of the 94th Infantry Division while overseas. Cecil was later attached to a field artillery wire communications unit and while working with them received an electrical shock that took his life on 9 May 1945 near Heilbronn, Germany. He was participating in the Central Europe Campaign.
Cecil was 19 years old and the son of Valentine Edward Branscom and Sarah “Sally” Elizabeth Tipton. He had two other brothers that served in the United States Army overseas during World War II, Millard Dean Branscom in Europe and Russell Clark Branscom in the Pacific.
Cecil had a memorial marker first placed in the George W. Miller Cemetery in Johnson City, Tennessee that has since been relocated to its resting position now at Monte Vista Memorial Gardens in Johnson City, Tennessee.
- Rank: Private First Class
- Date of birth: 14 December 1925
- Date of death: 9 March 1945
- County: Washington
- Hometown: Johnson City
- Service Branch: Army/Army Air Forces
- Division/Assignment: 401st Field Artillery Battalion
- Theater: Europe
- Conflict: World War II
- Burial/Memorial Location: Lorraine American Cemetery, St. Avold (Moselle), France
- Location In Memorial: Pillar XIX, Bottom Panel
- Contact us to sponsor Cecil A. Branscom
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