<div>
Quoting from his <em>HOWITZER </em>writeup: “Doubtless ‘Granny’ is in certain respects an old granny. He hails from Mississippi where it is permanently hot. Consequently nothing is too hot for him. He landed here in June after four attempts. The examiners made it hot for him and he enjoyed it. P. Echols made it hot for him. He revelled in that. P. Wilcox turned him out, and he sweat blood and delighted in it. P. Carter—but why continue? The hotter it gets the better he likes it. His idea of Heaven is seven red comforters when the thermometer falls below sixty.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
“He saw his first snow here. He tore down stairs, felt of it, tasted it, smelled it, got some down his neck, and then raced back up to the flourth floor and perched on the radiator. His favorite expression in winter is, ‘Shet that damn do’, fool.”</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Hal was born in Meridian, Mississippi, on 4 January 1898. His mother and father respectively were Lula Nelson and S. S. Granberry. He acquired both his primary and secondary education in Mississippi and prepared for the West Point entrance examinations at Marion Institute in Alabama along with a number of his future West Point classmates. Because of his several attempts before success, he was among the elders in the class. He was appointed to West Point by Congressman W. W. Venable of the 6th District of Mississippi. He was graduated into the Infantry and was married to his cadet “one and only” Molly Andrews Cary, Albany, New York, a few hours after graduation by Chaplain Wheat in the Cadet Chapel, 12 June 1923. His best man was his roommate, Clyde Rich, and among the attendants was the author of this biography.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
After graduation leave, Granberry reported for duty with the 12th Infantry at Fort Howard, Maryland. On 12 September 1924 he was detailed to the Air Corps and attended the Air Corps Primary School as a student officer at Brooks Field, Texas, to 6 June 1925 when he was relieved from the Air Corps and sent to the 38th Infantry at Fort Logan, Colorado. While in Colorado Molly and Hal were divorced and Hal married Marion Virginia Watt at Denver, Colorado, 16 January 1928.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Hal went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, on 10 June 1927, and while there on 25 August 1928, was promoted to first lieutenant. From there he went to the Signal School at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, as a student officer, graduating 12 June 1929 and was assigned to the 14th Infantry at Fort Davis, Canal Zone, and on 17 February 1930, appointed aide-de-camp to Brigadier General C. D. Roberts. He left the Canal Zone on 22 July 1931 for Fort Benning, Georgia, to join the 29th Infantry, and on 16 September 1933 was assigned as a student officer in the Advanced Course, Infantry School, at that station, graduating 15 June 1934.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
After several months’ leave of absence, he reported for his first of two tours in the Philippines as commanding officer of Headquarters Company, 57th Infantry, and was promoted to captain 1 August 1935. He returned to the United States on 20 September 1936, serving successively as a company commander in the 3d Infantry at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, to 1 October 1938, and the 25th Infantry at Fort Huachuca, Arizona; promoted to major 1 July 1940, and to lieutenant colonel, Army of the United States, 24 December 1941.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
From Fort Huachuca, Hal was assigned for a second time to the Philippines as commanding officer of the 57th Infantry (Philippine Scouts). He distinguished himself in the fighting against the Japanese in the retreat to Bataan; was decorated with two Silver Stars and the Legion of Merit; was wounded and awarded the Purple Heart. He became a prisoner of war after the surrender at Bataan and made the Death March to imprisonment in the Philippines. Hal died of wounds aboard a Japanese prisoner of war ship 27 January 1945, on the way to Japan, at age 47.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Thus was prematurely ended an outstanding career of a distinguished soldier in the service of his country. Hal was loved and respected by all who came in contact with him, and his life exemplified the typical graduate of the Long Gray Line.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<em>—A Classmate</em></div>