Last updated: January 23, 2024
Person
Arnold William Erickson
NPS Photo/Boyce
Quick Facts
Significance:
US Navy Sailor, World War II, KIA
Place of Birth:
Port Wing, Wisconsin
Date of Birth:
September 28, 1908
Place of Death:
Near Okinawa
Date of Death:
July 30, 1945
Place of Burial:
Everett, Washington
Cemetery Name:
Evergreen Cemetery
Arnold William Erickson was one of the older sailors on the USS Cassin Young (DD-793). He was born in September 1908, in Port Wing, Wisconsin to Hjalmar and Albertina Erickson, both immigrants from Sweden. The family moved to Lowell, Washington (Lowell was annexed into the larger city of Everett in 1960). Arnold was highly accomplished. After graduating from Everett High School, he attended Washington State University, earning both a bachelor and a master’s degree in chemistry (on his application for enlistment he filled in "Last School Grade Completed:" with the answer "17th"). In college, Arnold was a member of several clubs. Before the war he worked as a chemist for Everett Pulp and Paper Company and Soundview Pulp Company.
Erickson was sent a notice informing him that he had passed an examination, and he was qualified to enlist as a Radio Technician 2nd class (RT2c). The letter is dated September 22, 1942. He enlisted on September 28, 1942, his 34th birthday, for a term of two years. As a radio technician 2nd class, he earned $96 per month.1
Arnold William Erickson's signature from enlistment
(National Archives Personnel file)
The navy invested 15 months of training into RT2c Erickson. He did his basic training close to home at Puget Sound Navy Yard in Bremerton, Washington. He attended Pre-Radio Materiel School at the Chicago Armory, where he earned a perfect score in mathematics. He attended a 12-week course in Elementary Electricity and Radio Materiel at Queens College in Grove City, Pennsylvania. He graduated third in a class of 88. Erickson studied Radio Materiel for 36 weeks (May to October 1943) at the Naval Training School on Treasure Island in San Francisco, California. He graduated number 38 in a class of 240 sailors. Upon completion of this course Erickson was promoted to Radio Technician 1st class (RT1c). He also had a rather telling notation added to his personnel file:
Completed course of instruction at Naval Training School (Radio Materiel), Treasure Island, San Francisco, California. Qualified in General Radio Materiel, RADAR and Underwater Sound Equipment (theory and limited practical work only) subjects. Possesses special knowledge or information of value to a foreign power, which places him in the category defined by provisions of BuNav [Bureau of the Navy] Restricted Circular letter No 145-41, dated 12/2/41.2
He was a good shot too; in his Rifle fire training, he scored 131 out of possible 150, firing 30 rounds of ammunition.
The personnel file for RT1c Erickson includes a two-page circular letter dated June 11, 1943. It defines the scope of work of radio technicians and delineates responsibilities separate from radiomen. In short, the technicians are responsible for the installation and maintenance of the equipment. But “where circumstances require, radio technicians may be employed as necessary in radio communication duties.”3
RT1c Erickson joined the crew of USS Cassin Young (DD-793) on December 31, 1943, making him a plank owner (a member of the original crew). While on Cassin Young he put his training to good use. September 1944 he was commended by his commanding offer at “Meritorious Mast.”
For initiative, and resourcefulness in the conversion of a unit radio equipment from the D.C. to A.C. using material at hand and thereby insuring continuous operation of the equipment.
E.T. Schreiber, Commander, USN, Comdg.4
Destroyers often served as escorts or on picket duty. Think of a picket fence surrounding a yard, a porous perimeter encircling something you want to protect. Destroyers (and Destroyer Escorts) are assigned to stations ringing the fleet (be it at sea or in a port); they use their RADAR and SONAR equipment to be the eyes and ears of the fleet. Then radio or other signaling systems are used to relay back to the fleet any sign of movement in the air, and on or below the ocean’s surface. Picket duty is critical for protecting larger and slower ships. The safety of more than his shipmates depended on the work and skill of RT1c Erickson.
Cassin Young served on picket duty frequently during the Okinawa campaign in the spring of 1945, during which Cassin Young was struck by a kamikaze on two occasions. April 12, 1945, a kamikaze struck the mast of Cassin Young and exploded. Shrapnel rained down on the ship, killing one sailor and wounding 59 more. On July 30, 1945, USS Cassin Young was struck by a kamikaze a second time. This time the plane crashed through the main deck and into the forward fireroom, causing a significant explosion. RT1c Erickson was struck in the head by a fragment and died instantly. He was one of 22 sailors killed. At 36 years old, he was the oldest of the Cassin Young crew to be killed in action. There is a good chance he was considered an “old man” by his youthful shipmates.
Arnold Erickson was survived by his parents and his two brothers. He was reinterred in the Evergreen Cemetery in Everett, Washington.
Footnotes
- Official Military Personnel File of Arnold William Erickson, National Personnel Records Center, National Archives and Records Administration, St. Louis, MO.
- Official Military Personnel File of Arnold William Erickson, National Personnel Records Center, National Archives and Records Administration, St. Louis, MO.
- Official Military Personnel File of Arnold William Erickson, National Personnel Records Center, National Archives and Records Administration, St. Louis, MO.
- Official Military Personnel File of Arnold William Erickson, National Personnel Records Center, National Archives and Records Administration, St. Louis, MO.