Plant City veteran keeps us from forgetting.
Brandon Shearer’s attraction to all things military began when he was in fifth grade. He found a series of books in his elementary school library in Ft. Lauderdale. “The first book I checked out was ‘Guadalcanal Diaries.’ I was fascinated by it, and I read all the others in the series. I became obsessed with history. It’s a calling. I knew this is what I wanted to do.” Later, his uncle, a WWII veteran who fought on Iwo Jima, gave Shearer a Japanese battle flag and a Hitler Youth dagger he had won in a poker game on a ship home. “From there I started going to antique stores, collecting military items. Then it grew, and grew, and grew. It really took off when I was stationed in New Orleans in the mid-2010s, and I was affiliated with the WWII Museum as a reenactor. I wanted to build my collection to interpret a WWII era marine. “I think the Greatest Generation was the high-water mark for American excellence and the generational sacrifice and dedication that helped us keep the world safe for democracy. The whole era and how it shaped the modern world is fascinating.”
After graduating from UF and taking part in the school’s ROTC, Shearer was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. He served his final years at the Pentagon, then retired as a Colonel in 2017 after 26 years of service. He lives in a historic Florida house in town, the last existing City of Plant City strawberry farmhouse. “I am honored to keep the house preserved,” Shearer commented. He built a separate building on his property that serves as a museum that displays his large military collection of items that spans dates from the Anglo-Zulu War to the war in Iraq.
Shearer took part in the 2025 Zephyrhills Museum of Military History Battle for Veterans that was held on November 7-9. “It was a recreation of Operation Cobra, which was the Normandy Breakout in 1944,” he said. “So, most of the participants were dressed European Theater, 1940s. I was dressed as a tank dispatch rider, so I was on my Harley Davidson, and I wore my armored cavalry uniform. My display mostly was U.S. Army, European Theater, in 1945. We took two tents and my two vehicles; the 1942 Plymouth P14C sedan staff car, which is the only one in the U.S. that is driveable and not in a museum, and the 1942 Harley Davidson.”
Shearer collects to “Preserve the heritage of the items and those that used them and tell a story of how they were maintained, what they used, what they wore for future generations, and also, to continue the legacy and honor the greatest generation of WWII. Otherwise, the meaning of what it is to be an American and the sacrifices of those who went before us will be forgotten. So, I do my little part in that.”
