S1c Dale Deen Bicknell
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Dale Deen Bicknell was born Nov. 12, 1921 in Rochester, Washington, a community of less than 1,000 about 16 miles south of Olympia. His father, Bertrand Benjamin Bicknell, was a farmer in the Independence precinct southwest of Rochester and his mother, Mabel Alice Mills Bicknell, was a homemaker. She died when the boy was 10.
He was the youngest of two brothers and a sister, and in 1939 one of 36 graduates of Rochester High School. Mr. Bicknell was the class treasurer.
He enlisted in the Navy on May 15, 1940, and was a seaman first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.
His brother Burl worked for the Navy at its Puget Sound yard from 1940 until 1944.
Note: Dale’s enlistment application says his middle name was Deen. A Navy casualty roster also says Deen. When he was formally accepted into the Navy, the top of the typed form said “commonly known as” Dale Dean, followed by a second line that said Dale Deen. The marker he shares with his mother at Mountain View Cemetery in Centralia, Washington, says Dean.
Sources: The Morning Olympian of Olympia, Washington; the Statesman Journal of Salem, Oregon; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster rolls; cenotaph. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.
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