Robert Jared Dickson was a 19-year-old sailor aboard the USS Curtiss, a seaplane tender, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)

Robert Jared Dickson was a 19-year-old sailor aboard the USS Curtiss, a seaplane tender, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)

A 19-year-old farm kid ‘caught in the middle of a great war’

Related: Flying Heritage museum posts online video archive of interviews

ARLINGTON — In Robert Jared Dickson’s 95 years of life, one horrific day is seared into his memory like no other. He was a teenage sailor, a farm kid from Wyoming, on Dec. 7, 1941. His ship, the USS Curtiss, was moored in berth Xray 22 at Pearl Harbor.

“The Japanese came swooping in. I was aboard ship. I had a big tray of eggs and toast,” he said.

In the quiet of his Arlington home last week, Dickson grew somber recalling the carnage and destruction wrought by the surprise attack that crippled the Navy’s battleship force. Of more than 2,400 Americans killed that day, some were Dickson’s buddies.

A witness to history, he is haunted by what he saw at age 19 in the aftermath of the bombings, torpedoes and strafing.

“What has stayed with me longest is all the cleanup. It was traumatic, seeing body parts and blood and gore,” Dickson said. His duty that bright morning, was manning a small launch from the 527-foot Curtiss. It required him to retrieve the dead from the water, and to transport bodies to a landing dock next to a naval hospital. “There were legs, arms, torsos,” he said.

Dickson has spoken before about that “date which will live in infamy,” as President Franklin Roosevelt described it. He has talked at schools about the day that launched the United States into World War II. In 2012, he shared his memories with Herald readers.

Today, Dickson is back in Hawaii for the 75th anniversary commemoration of the attack on Pearl Harbor. His journey to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and other sites began Sunday. He is accompanied by his son, Dennis Dickson, and daughter-in-law, Dawn, also of Arlington.

Before his departure, Dickson recalled what it was like in the Territory of Hawaii, just off Oahu, 75 years ago today.

“It was a Sunday, and most of the crew were still in their bunks. I had duty on a small motor launch,” he said. He had ferried officers to shore before coming back to the Curtiss for breakfast.

A seaplane tender, the Curtiss was tied up across a channel from Ford Island, where the USS Arizona and other ships were moored on Battleship Row. Dickson, a fireman first class in 1941, said that when the Curtiss came in to dock at Pearl Harbor just days before the attack, “the USS Nevada had taken our berth.”

The Nevada, which was torpedoed but managed to escape, was moored right behind the Arizona. The attack killed 1,177 sailors and Marines aboard the USS Arizona, now a memorial and the underwater final resting place of more than 1,100 men.

From the other side of Ford Island, the USS Curtiss was able to get underway and fire at Japanese planes. Dickson said that shortly after hearing the first explosions, an alarm sounded. Men on the Curtiss ran to battle stations.

Dickson was ordered into a 24-foot open boat to pick up survivors. His launch was the last small boat to leave the Curtiss. He embarked without his normal crew of three other sailors. “They were probably all on gun crew. I was alone,” he said.

Terrified, Dickson tried crossing the bay in front of two destroyers. They were leaving the channel while being targeted by bombs and machine gun fire. Forced to turn his launch to avoid hitting a destroyer, he passed directly between them as Japanese planes roared overhead.

He headed for the safety of a small concrete building across the bay, ducking into his boat’s bow and covering himself with life jackets. Bullets pierced his boat, but he made it about 200 yards to the refuge.

Dickson recalled rescuing one man from the water. The man hung on to a timber Dickson said might have come from the USS Utah, which had its deck covered with wood to protect it during practice bombing — those “bombs” were flour-filled sacks.

In Arlington, Dickson has a new neighbor who has told him he was rescued from the water just after the Japanese attack.

Joseph Workman, also 95, moved several months ago from Texas to a home next to Dickson. His caregiver, Rebecca Campbell, said Monday that on Dec. 7, 1941, Workman was acting as an “altar boy,” an assistant to William Maguire, the Navy’s Pacific Fleet chaplain.

Workman’s role was mentioned in a 1986 account, “A Day Of Infamy,” published in The Chicago Tribune. Workman has told Campbell he was on a small skiff going out to the USS California when he was blown overboard. “He’s not nearly as alert as Jared Dickson,” Campbell said.

Someone pulled Seaman Workman from the water that day. Dickson said he and his neighbor have talked about the possibility that in the chaos their paths crossed. They’ll never know, but the two Pearl Harbor survivors are now next-door neighbors.

“What a generation of men they were,” Campbell said.

Dickson spent the entire war in the South Pacific. After the war, he briefly attended college in Wyoming, but moved to the Northwest to join uncles working in construction. As a contractor, he built hundreds of miles of roads, many for the U.S. Forest Service and Washington state.

A widower for the third time, Dickson lost both his first wife, Elna, and his second wife, Marie, to cancer. He and his third wife, Mary Alice, were married about 20 years before she died in 2015. Dickson is a proud father of six, with 27 grandchildren, 62 great-grandchildren, and a great-great-grandchild due this spring.

He said he has outlived “all those survivors from the Curtiss,” and most Pearl Harbor survivors he knew in Snohomish County. He used to attend gatherings of Pearl Harbor survivors at the Golden Corral restaurant in Marysville. “There’s not anyone left. We used to fill a room,” he said.

His mind goes back to the nightmarish scene he saw after taking shelter in that concrete building. Japanese planes came in waves. The raids “seemed to last forever,” he said. “You can’t imagine the noise, and the smoke where the battleships were,” he said in 2012.

Dickson saw his ship get hit when a Japanese dive bomber crashed into it. About 20 crewmen from the USS Curtiss were killed, and Dickson was part of the cleanup crew. The Curtiss was repaired and went on to serve during the war.

“When all the Japanese planes left, there was kind of a calm,” he said. He ferried wounded men to Naval Hospital Pearl Harbor and the USS Solace, a hospital ship. Many were badly burned.

He can’t forget the worst of it, but after 75 years Dickson said he has “CRS — can’t remember stuff.”

Earlier this year, his daughter Kristy Tate helped him publish “Robert Jared Dickson: A Personal History.” The paperback tells of more than his Pearl Harbor memories. It chronicles his early life, as the youngest of seven children raised by pioneers in Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin.

Dickson is quoted on the book’s back cover: “I have never professed to have been a great hero. I was just a farm boy caught in the middle of a great war.”

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

Trader Joe’s customers walk in and out of the store on Monday, Nov. 20, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Trader Joe’s opens this week at Everett Mall

It’s a short move from a longtime location, essentially across the street, where parking was often an adventure.

Ian Bramel-Allen enters a guilty plea to second-degree murder during a plea and sentencing hearing on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Deep remorse’: Man gets 17 years for friend’s fatal stabbing in Edmonds

Ian Bramel-Allen, 44, pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder for killing Bret Northcutt last year at a WinCo.

Firefighters respond to a small RV and a motorhome fire on Tuesday afternoon in Marysville. (Provided by Snohomish County Fire Distrct 22)
1 injured after RV fire, explosion near Marysville

The cause of the fire in the 11600 block of 81st Avenue NE had not been determined, fire officials said.

Ashton Dedmon appears in court during his sentencing hearing on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Everett Navy sailor sentenced to 90 days for fatal hit and run

Ashton Dedmon crashed into Joshua Kollman and drove away. Dedmon, a petty officer on the USS Kidd, reported he had a panic attack.

A kindergarten student works on a computer at Emerson Elementary School on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘¡Una erupción!’: Dual language programs expanding to 10 local schools

A new bill aims to support 10 new programs each year statewide. In Snohomish County, most follow a 90-10 model of Spanish and English.

Cassie Franklin, Mayor of Everett, delivers the annual state of the city address Thursday morning in the Edward D. Hansen Conference Center in Everett, Washington on March 31, 2022.  (Kevin Clark / The Herald)
At Everett mayor’s keynote speech: $35 entry, Boeing sponsorship

The city won’t make any money from the event, city spokesperson Simone Tarver said. Still, it’s part of a trend making open government advocates wary.

Logo for news use featuring the Tulalip Indian Reservation in Snohomish County, Washington. 220118
Woman drives off cliff, dies on Tulalip Reservation

The woman fell 70 to 80 feet after driving off Priest Point Drive NW on Sunday afternoon.

Everett
Boy, 4, survives fall from Everett fourth-story apartment window

The child was being treated at Seattle Children’s. The city has a limited supply of window stops for low-income residents.

People head out to the water at low tide during an unseasonably warm day on Saturday, March 16, 2024, at Lighthouse Park in Mukilteo, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Everett shatters record high temperature by 11 degrees

On Saturday, it hit 73 degrees, breaking the previous record of 62 set in 2007.

Snohomish County Fire District #4 and Snohomish Regional Fire & Rescue respond to a motor vehicle collision for a car and pole. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene, near Triangle Bait & Tackle in Snohomish. (Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office)
Police: Troopers tried to stop driver before deadly crash in Snohomish

The man, 31, was driving at “a high rate of speed” when he crashed into a traffic light pole and died, investigators said.

Alan Dean, who is accused of the 1993 strangulation murder of 15-year-old Bothell girl Melissa Lee, appears in court during opening statements of his trial on Monday, March 18, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
31 years later, trial opens in Bothell teen’s brutal killing

In April 1993, Melissa Lee’s body was found below Edgewater Creek Bridge. It would take 27 years to arrest Alan Dean in her death.

Logo for news use featuring the municipality of Snohomish in Snohomish County, Washington. 220118
Man dies after crashing into pole in Snohomish

Just before 1 a.m., the driver crashed into a traffic light pole at the intersection of 2nd Street and Maple Avenue.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.