A conversation that stands the test of time
Warren Harding Dickerson told his son of his war experiences during a conversation 40 years ago.
Warren Dickerson of Bobtown, now 60, also a Navy veteran, shares a conversation he had with his father 40 years ago about his experiences in World War II.
Forty years ago, Warren Dickerson of Bobtown, now 60 years old, was in the Navy and stationed at Great Lakes, Ill. His family was living in Florida and he decided to surprise his parents with a weekend leave.
It turned out to be a fortuitous visit because Dickerson’s father, a Navy veteran, never spoke of his experiences during World War II.
But on this night in February 1972, the two sat down and talked. What follows is the first installment in a series that recounts that conversation, a conversation Dickerson refers to as “The Night at the Kitchen Table.”
nI called Aunt Dot and asked her if Uncle Ed (Zalewski) could pick me up at Page Field, Fort Myers, Fla., at 11 p.m.. She said that he would. Uncle Ed picked me up and we went to our house, arriving at about 11:30 pm. Aunt Dot came over to our house at 9:30 with a bottle of wine and said to mom, let’s have a drink.
Mom thought that something was wrong, but did not say anything. It was Aunt Dot’s way of keeping her awake until I got home. Anyway, they talked for two hours. When I got home, mom answered the door and was shocked to see me. Dad, who was in bed, woke up and came out of the bedroom. With that we all sat at the kitchen table and had a good time.
After a while, Aunt Dot and Uncle Ed went home, then Mom went to bed, and just Dad and I were there at the table.
As the time went by, dad started to tell me of his experiences of World War II. This was the only time that he ever spoke to me about the war. We talked until the sun came up. I felt at the time that he was getting something off of his chest. He was very descriptive in details. This was especially true when he talked about his experiences at Saipan.
Looking back through the years, I feel that he must have carried a lot of scars from the war that affected him for the rest of his life.
Many times I have thought about the night that we had this conversation. And just recently I thought, I should write down what he told me that night, as you might find it informative, and it will help fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle.
As I started to write, I thought back to when I got out of the Navy and was home for a couple of days. Dad and I were sitting at the kitchen table again, when he asked me, well, what do you think of civilian life? I answered that I was not used to how quiet everything was. There was no heat or dirt that I was used to be being around in the boiler room.
He told me that the noise, heat and dirt will pass, but the memories will be with you your entire life. He was right about that. The following is some of the recollections and personal thoughts that I have of our conversation.
He started by telling me that he was offered a football scholarship to Rutgers University, but needed a little assistance from his father. His father would not help him, so instead of going to college he was drafted and went to war. He was very bitter about this for the rest of his life. He joined the Navy and was trained as a ship’s propulsion engineer.
He was assigned to the “Surface Invasion Fleet” with L.S.T. 269, which was built at Pittsburgh. An L.S.T. is a ship that can land combat tanks and equipment on an island beach. Dad made 27 of these landings on enemy islands. That is an incredibly high number in which to participate, and experience, without receiving an injury.
Dad told of the time they ran aground in the middle on the South China Sea. It seems that they were fully loaded and traveling in a convoy with other ships, when suddenly their ship shuddered very hard. Moments later the ship came to a complete stop.
They had run aground in uncharted waters. Dad said that they were hard aground and could not budge the ship. The convoy that they were sailing with continued on without them, and they were left alone. They were now a stationary target for the Japanese with little chance of survival if attacked. As it turned out, a sea going tug boat was nearby and arrived the next day, and was able to pull them off the reef. Dad said that they were at General Quarters (battle stations) for a day and a half. Dad also said that they were lucky. “Somebody was watching over us that day.”
Atoll was a place in the South Pacific where most of the repairs were made to the ships. Once, when Dad’s ship was there, he thought it would be a good time to inspect the ships propellers. The leading edge of the propellers would get nicked and gouged with every beach landing. This in turn would cause cavitations to be transferred to the main engines, which could damage them.
So, one sunny day, Dad put on flippers, an air supplied diving mask, and grabbed a pipe wrench and jumped into the lagoon to inspect the propellers. He said that the visibility was very good as he used the pipe wrench to straighten out the dings on the propellers. All of a sudden he noticed that is was dark. He looked up to see a 20-foot tiger shark looking down at him. He said that he dropped the pipe wrench and swam to the rudder guard which had a small area that he crawled into for protection.
The shark must not have seen where he went, as it kept swimming around looking for him.
Meanwhile, the sailors that were topside did not know what he was doing as there was no line movement on his dive rope. So they started to pull on the line to get a response from dad. They were trying to pull him out of his place of safety, while he was pulling back trying to stay protected inside the rudder guard. He said that the shark swam around for 10 minutes looking for him. He finally took a chance and swam to the surface and, as he said, literally jumped out of the water.
After telling his story to the guys topside, one sailor got an explosive charge that they threw into the lagoon. When it exploded about 100 fish came to the surface, but not the shark. When it was all over, he said he understood why all of the natives at the atoll were missing an arm or leg. He said, “That shark just wanted to eat me.”
Next Sunday: “The Runabout”
Editor’s Note: Warren Harding Dickerson, the author’s father, died at age 54 in 1977. The younger Dickerson moved from Cape Coral, Fla., to Bobtown in 1996, where he lives with his wife, Jennifer. They have two children, a son and daughter.