Sidelines column: Wartime memories of Lt. Bill Dickey

Don Cantrell

During the recent salute to many Harbor High World War II heroes in

the military service, this corner - and with regrets - failed to mention

one of the classy Navy pilots named Lt. Bill Dickey.

Dickey, who grew up in Balboa, was an outstanding varsity baseball

player for three years under two coaches, the late Ralph Reed and the

late Dick Spaulding, who also coached the 1938-39 football teams.

Dickey earned numerous honors as a fighter pilot, but the two most

noteworthy awards featured the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air

Medal. He was decorated with both medals in San Diego.

The military report said, “The Distinguished Flying Cross was won for

aiding in repelling an attack by an overwhelming surface force of

Japanese battleships, cruisers and destroyers, which attempted to destroy

his lightly protected carrier division in the decisive sea-air Battle of

Leyte Gulf (Philippines).”

The report added, “He won the Air Medal for intercepting a large

formation of enemy bombing planes striking at the invasion ships of Layte

Gulf. During the attack, he destroyed part of the enemy air force and

helped to turn back the raiders before they could reach their objective.”

Lt. Dickey also participated in the major campaigns at Saipan and

Tinian in the South Pacific.

Dickey, a graduate of Santa Ana Junior College, matched up with his

teammate, Sparks McClellan, a ’39 Tar gridder, by flying a Navy Hellcat.

McClellan also earned numerous honors during WWII.

Dickey’s younger brother, Don, a regular on the ’48 varsity basketball

team under Reed, also drew recognition from the Navy years later, when he

sustained a serious eye injury performing his task for the Navy Seals.

After serving numerous years for a major airline, Bill Dickey retired

and moved to Dana Point.

He and another Harbor High grad, Glenn O. Thompson, who, in time,

became a rear admiral in the Coast Guard, once returned to the Harbor

area before the war ended to deliver modest talks on their roles in the

South Pacific before local community leaders.

Thompson was the star quarterback on the ’37 Harbor High football

team, directed by Reed.

Dickey got his start in the Navy by signing up for duty at Los

Alamitos. He then shifted to Pensacola, Fla. to learn how to fly and was

then directed to the South Pacific for action.

One sterling event that came about with Don Dickey’s ’48 class was

seeing the varsity baseball team win the championship. What makes it

bigger today in the history books is the fact that no other Harbor High

outfit ever won a baseball title in all the other years.

The key to the title came with the arrival of a fabulous left-handed

pitcher named Frank Hamilton from Portland, Ore. He was 6-foot-4 and

hurled the ball at wild speeds for a prepster. In fact, he was offered a

$50,000 contract from the New York Yankees at the end of the season. But

he let it pass in favor of college.

Newport had a big boost for Hamilton when he came to Harbor and that

was an ace catcher named Bill Weatherwax, who later advanced to a club

with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Weatherwax played five years for an Idaho club, then returned to the

Harbor area where he worked for the Costa Mesa Fire Department, then the

Costa Mesa Police Department. He still lives in Costa Mesa.

The major event for some to celebrate this month is the 59th wedding

anniversary for Coach and Mrs. Al Irwin. They were married back before

WWII limited their activities.

Irwin served as a swimming instructor for the Navy at the Great Lakes

Training Center before taking an assignment to become a flight deck

officer in the South Pacific.

After four years of football at Harbor High, Irwin went on to play

another four years at the College of the Pacific under famed Coach Amos

Alonzo Stagg.