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Independence, MO —
Dorwin Lamkin
WWII Navy 1940 to 1946
Pearl Harbor Survivor
ENLISTING
In the year 1922 Dorwin was born and was named him after the banker who helped the family through tough times. His childhood was as expected for those times, and once graduated from high school in 1940 at the age of 18, Dorwin enlisted in the National Guard hoping to get a college education out of it. Due to complications in the Guard, he then enlisted in the Navy and had his first training at Great Lakes.
PEARL HARBOR
After a brief training he was sent aboard the USS Nevada and was in Hawaii during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He remembers the weather being beautiful in Hawaii that December day and having no idea at all they were to soon be attacked from the air. When the attack first began Dorwin was in sick bay and heard a rat-rat-rat thinking it was just equipment being moved around, but when the general alarm sounded he grabbed his shoes and ran to his battle station on the ship. They were tied to a concrete pier and the ship was listing back and forth with the propellers turning over. The first bomb hit the Nevada and went into the gasoline storage, blowing out a hold in the bow 40-by-70 feet and it immediately began to sink. They were pushed sideways away from the pier, and Dorwin recalls that the ship sank gracefully. There were 300 sailors on the top deck who lost their lives aboard the Nevada that day. Dorwin says the Japanese did not bomb our oil supply because they were coming back for another attack and, knowing this, as many men as possible ran to the cane fields to hide. He says if they had bombed the oil supply the battle would have gone to the California coastline.
CONTINUED DUTY
Having lost his ship, Dorwin was put aboard the USS San Francisco Cruiser, where he would spend the next year. After that year he was offered a year of college and he asked for the University of Minnesota to be close to home, but was given Lawrence, Kan. Dorwin laughs remembering when his mother heard this she said, "What's Kansas"? When the atom bombs were dropped, Dorwin was went back to his fleet and was sent to the Philippines for the remainder of his service years.
AFTER THE WAR
He says he is grateful for the military experiences and attributes his self worth and self image to those military years. Coming from a working class, immigrant family would not have afforded him the opportunities he received from the military, and he recommends that type of life for anyone.
Dorwin Lamkin
WWII Navy 1940 to 1946
Pearl Harbor Survivor
ENLISTING
In the year 1922 Dorwin was born and was named him after the banker who helped the family through tough times. His childhood was as expected for those times, and once graduated from high school in 1940 at the age of 18, Dorwin enlisted in the National Guard hoping to get a college education out of it. Due to complications in the Guard, he then enlisted in the Navy and had his first training at Great Lakes.
PEARL HARBOR
After a brief training he was sent aboard the USS Nevada and was in Hawaii during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He remembers the weather being beautiful in Hawaii that December day and having no idea at all they were to soon be attacked from the air. When the attack first began Dorwin was in sick bay and heard a rat-rat-rat thinking it was just equipment being moved around, but when the general alarm sounded he grabbed his shoes and ran to his battle station on the ship. They were tied to a concrete pier and the ship was listing back and forth with the propellers turning over. The first bomb hit the Nevada and went into the gasoline storage, blowing out a hold in the bow 40-by-70 feet and it immediately began to sink. They were pushed sideways away from the pier, and Dorwin recalls that the ship sank gracefully. There were 300 sailors on the top deck who lost their lives aboard the Nevada that day. Dorwin says the Japanese did not bomb our oil supply because they were coming back for another attack and, knowing this, as many men as possible ran to the cane fields to hide. He says if they had bombed the oil supply the battle would have gone to the California coastline.
CONTINUED DUTY
Having lost his ship, Dorwin was put aboard the USS San Francisco Cruiser, where he would spend the next year. After that year he was offered a year of college and he asked for the University of Minnesota to be close to home, but was given Lawrence, Kan. Dorwin laughs remembering when his mother heard this she said, "What's Kansas"? When the atom bombs were dropped, Dorwin was went back to his fleet and was sent to the Philippines for the remainder of his service years.
AFTER THE WAR
He says he is grateful for the military experiences and attributes his self worth and self image to those military years. Coming from a working class, immigrant family would not have afforded him the opportunities he received from the military, and he recommends that type of life for anyone.
While in college in 1945, Dorwin met Catherine and they were married for 23 years until her death in a car accident. Together they had four boys. Several years later he married again adopting her two children to join his four sons. They too had a great life until her death. Dorwin is a member of the local Pearl Harbor Survivors Group, which is now, unfortunately, down to four members from the 56 when the Group first began. He lives alone in Mission, Kan. Dorwin, along with Al Lemieus and the Pearl Harbor Survivors Group, were instrumental in obtaining a relic of the USS Arizona, where it now resides at Pearl Harbor Memorial Park in Mission.
Helen Matson, who is on the staff for the city of Independence, compiles interviews with veterans at the Truman Memorial Building.
