USMC Corporal Oliver Daniel Nichelson was born in Pensacola, Florida on February 19, 1920, the son of Thomas "Uncle Tom" Jefferson Nichelson (1879-1941) and Alvaretta "Retta" Jackson (1888-1978). In 1918, his father was working for the government as a deckhand on the steamboat "Dixie" and living at 207 N. Reus Street in Pensacola. Then in 1920, he was supporting them as a "fish packer" for a wholesale fish company. But by 1930, the family had moved to Niceville where his father continued as a fisherman. For whatever reason, Alvaretta returned to Pensacola and rented a house at 1617 East Scott Street sometime after 1935 as the boys entered the local school system.
But when the twins became of age, they decided to go elsewhere with their future employment plans. On December 4, 1939, Oliver enlisted in the US Marines and was sent off to San Diego, CA for basic training. By February 1940, he was stationed aboard the USS Lexington (CV-2) as an anti-aircraft gunner. By this time, his twin brother Jack Alexander had chosen the Navy and enlisted on April 10, 1940. Then came Pearl Harbor, and little did the boys know they were to be right in the midst of a horrific war with America's navy playing a pivotal role in the outcome.
To stop the Japanese juggernaut racing across the Pacific with a thrust toward Australia, the US Navy sent an outnumbered task force to strike the enemy fleet in the Coral Sea. This battle was to be the first in naval history fought strictly between carriers. The battle began on May 7th, as the two fleets sought the location of the other. The American's found the enemy's escort carrier Shoho and sunk it but the enemy also found one of our destroyers, the USS Sims and destroyed it along with Pensacolian Fred Wilkerson Penton. The next day the Japanese found the Lexington and Yorktown and attacked with a vengeance. As the enemy planes descended upon the Lexington on May 8th Oliver was manning an antiaircraft battery on the side of the ship. As the Japanese dove from the sky, he and his fellow Marines kept up a steady stream of shells directly into their oncoming midst. Even as torpedoes slammed into the side of the carrier in the immediate vicinity of his battery they continued to man their position, refusing to yield to the enemy. Finally, an enemy bomb struck the deck close by and set a locker full of antiaircraft shells on fire. The explosion killed Oliver and several of the other men as the survivors quickly extinguished the flames and readied their position to continue their resistance. By days end, the Lexington would slip beneath the waves taking Oliver and 215 others with it.
With the Lexington gone and the Yorktown badly damaged the task force limped back to Pearl Harbor. However, the Japanese were assured they had sunk both the Lexington and the Yorktown, but they were dead wrong. The Yorktown was overwhelmed with repair crews even though the American commanders said it would take at least three months to get her back in shape. After only three days she sailed with a bevy of repairmen still on board working around the clock to prepare her for the upcoming battle that would change world history. The Yorktown joined the USS Enterprise and USS Hornet northeast of Midway where they waited in ambush for the approaching Japanese Fleet and vengeance for Pearl Harbor and the Coral Sea! The battle of Midway would change the history of the war! In the meantime, Oliver's twin brother Jack had his own escape from death aboard the USS Franklin in 1945 where so many Pensacolians perished. Jack would survive the war and became a police officer with the Pensacola Police Department until 1948. In honor of Oliver he would name his son after his him. Jack would pass away in Massachusetts in 2001.
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