Influential Figures

Lieutenant Commander Jackson B. Davis: WWII Codebreaker

Lieutenant Commander
U. S. Navy
WWII US Military
Dates of Service: 07/14/1941 – 01/1946
Codebreaker, 14th Naval District Headquarters

“I hailed a cab; it took me on out to Pearl, where the war was started,” recalls Jackson Davis. He was born near LeCompte, Louisiana. After finishing law school, Jackson entered the service, received his commission, and was assigned to intelligence. He sailed into the Pacific on the USS Neosho, arriving on September 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor, where he was stationed throughout the war. On Sunday, December 7, 1941, he awakened in his hotel room to “hollering going on” as everyone leaped into action when Japanese planes roared above. Throughout the war, Jackson worked in traffic analysis and communications in the basement of the Fourteenth Naval District Headquarters building. There, code breakers pored over Japanese messages. Jackson was discharged as a lieutenant commander in January 1946. Jackson opened a law practice in Shreveport and served in the State Senate from 1956 to 1980.

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