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F1c Kenneth Robert Bickel
His wife, Marjorie, died in March 1941. She had pneumonia and paralysis and was in a Denver hospital when Mr. Bickel sailed from Hawaii to be with her. When his transport ship arrived in San Diego on April 1, he learned that she had died the day before.
After Mr. Bickel also died on Dec. 7, 1941, their daughter’s maternal grandparents took over her care.
Mr. Bickel was born April 25, 1914, in Kimball, Nebraska, barely 20 miles east of the Wyoming border, and attended school through the 11th grade at Kimball High School. On his application to join the Navy, he cited “trade” as the reason for wanting to enlist. He had worked as a farm hand and in the Civilian Conservation Corps.
The CCC, as it was known, employed single men 18 to 25 to plant trees, build roads and trails and make other improvements to public land, forests and parks. The men lived at camps across the country and were provided a bed and three meals a day. Of their $30 monthly pay, $25 was sent to their families. He served in Co. 798 at Fort Robinson and Halsey, Nebraska.
A Navy medical examiner’s note from May 1938 said Mr. Bickel, at 5’-9” and 129 pounds, was approximately 28 pounds underweight for enlistment. He was re-examined in July and accepted. By October, he was serving on the Arizona. He was a fireman first class when he was killed in the Japanese attack.
His Purple Heart was sent to his daughter, and in July 1943 his mother-in-law wrote a thank-you to the Navy. “It is a beautiful medal and I know as she gets older she will be very proud of it,” Flora McMillan wrote.