Dean G. Darrow

Dean G. Darrow in his sailor's uniform.

NPS/Dean G. Darrow Family

Dean G. Darrow was a 23 year old sailor on the Battleship USS West Virginia when the attack began. He ran to his battle station as the siege began and was knocked off the ship when a bomb hit. He swam in the burning water to a whale boat picking up the injured. He was unconscious when he arrived at the hospital. With minor wounds and no obvious life-threatening injuries, Dean was patched up and sent back on duty to the South Pacific.

Fast forward to March/April, 1942, Dean had an attack of appendicitis. He was sent to the hospital ship Solace and surgery was performed. It was after his surgery that he could explain to the doctor how he would feel faint and his heart would pound and that his supervisor blamed it on war nerves. This doctor took X-rays of Dean’s chest and was then told to stay calm and go back to bed with no other explanation. Back in his room, Dean then asked the corpsman what they found. He replied, “Don’t you know? You have a bullet in your heart!”

Dean was sent back to California and arrived at the Mare Island Naval Hospital, in April, 1942, over 4 months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. A surgeon, from Stanford, Doctor Emile Holman, examined Dean and told him he thought he could remove the bullet and he surely would not survive very long with that bullet in his heart. Open heart surgery was extremely very rare in those days. Dean’s special duty nurse was Alice Claire Beck and everyone called her Nurse Becky. Dean’s surgery was postponed 3 times and during this time, he became quite smitten with Nurse Becky. When the day finally arrived for Dean’s surgery, as Nurse Becky was giving him his pre-op med's, Dean took her hand and asked, “If I come out of this surgery, will you go on Liberty with me?” Of course, she said she would, what else could she say!

Dean recovered and they did go out on Liberty. After several dates, they flew to Los Angeles to meet Dean’s family. They both got their honorable discharges and were married in Reno, on August 1, 1942. They raised 4 children while living in Pleasant Hill, CA. Sadly, Dean passed away in December, 1991, of a massive heart attack.

Dean would sometimes say: “The best thing I ever got out of the Navy was my nurse”. Alice would then reply: “After the surgery, it left a hole in his heart. I was able to fill that hole with my love”.