Remembering Pearl Harbor Local Survivor Recounts Day of Infamy

Bob and Arlona Diggins. Photo By Jim Evans

By Jim Evans

This month will mark the 64th anniversary of the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on Dec. 7, 1941 — the precursor to U.S. involvement in World War II.

Ramona resident Bob Diggins is a survivor of Pearl Harbor and was on shore patrol with the Navy at the time of the attack. He had enlisted right after his service with the Civilian Conservation Corps and had been deployed to Pearl Harbor shortly after his basic training at the Naval Training Center in Point Loma.

“We didn’t know what hit us,” recalled Diggins, 82. “I was just 18 at the time, and my buddy and I had just returned from town and parked the Jeep on the dock across from the (USS) Arizona. Then we saw the planes. At first we thought they were ours. It wasn’t until the last minute that we realized what was happening. The planes were flying so low that I could see the pilots in the cockpits as plain as day. Then I was thrown out of my Jeep from the concussion as everything started exploding around us.”

It was an experience Diggins would never forget, as he spent the next several hours hauling the wounded and dying to the hospital in his Jeep.

More than 2,400 people died at Pearl Harbor 1,178 were wounded, eight battleships were damaged, 18 ships were sunk, 188 planes destroyed and 162 more planes damaged. It was, as President Roosevelt so aptly described, “a day of infamy.”

While on leave from Pearl Harbor in Vallejo, Calif., Diggins met his wife Arlona. She had traveled west with her cousin from their home in Arkansas to join in the war effort and was working as a welder at the Kaiser Shipyard in Richmond. The couple was married in 1943 in Reno, before he was deployed on the USS Elliott for combat in Kiska, Alaska.

While in Reno preparing for their wedding, Bob and Arlona went to the courthouse to get their license and told the taxi driver to wait outside for them. The clerk gave them their license and told them they could go upstairs and be married by the judge. But Arlona responded, “Oh, no — I’m getting married in a church!”

They returned to the waiting taxi and told their story to the driver. They weren’t familiar with any of the churches in town, and he told them that all of the hotel rooms were full, so he put them up at his house for the night. By the next morning, he had made arrangements for them to be married in a local church. But the story doesn’t end there.

Because of the wedding, Bob Diggins did not make it back to his ship on time and was listed as AWOL. When he finally reported for duty, his captain threatened him with a “captain’s court martial.”

“I’m going to give you a pack of cigarettes, throw you in the brig for a day, and take away one of your stripes. As soon as we are back at sea tomorrow, you will be reinstated to active duty!” Diggins was told.

Diggins subsequently was involved in nine separate engagements during the war. He fought in the Pacific aboard the USS Cassin Young — named after Navy Commander Cassin Young, who, ironically, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions at Pearl Harbor — which was in the forefront of the naval offensive against the Japanese.

“I was in the Philippines when MacArthur landed,” Diggins said, “and I saw action on Iwo Jima.” During the battle of Iwo Jima, Diggins was wounded in action.

Both of his eardrums were destroyed, resulting in a lifelong disability that prevented him from working outside the home but gave him the opportunity to become an original “Mr. Mom.”

“He raised our two daughters and did a terrific job,” said Arlona Diggins, who worked at General Dynamics and Convair from 1952 until 1990, when she retired as a configuration management analyst.

In addition to their two grown daughters, the Digginses have five grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandson.

“We’ve had our difficult times,” Arlona Diggins said, “but we’ve had a good life.”

Bob and Arlona Diggins have attended several Pearl Harbor reunions through the years and plan to attend the upcoming 65th anniversary next year in Hawaii.

“They keep getting smaller,” Diggins said. “The average age at the last reunion was 85, so we won’t be around forever, but we still enjoy getting together and swapping stories about our individual experiences at Pearl Harbor because everyone had a different perspective.”

And the cab driver who helped them get married more than 60 years ago?

“We tracked him down in Arkansas after 50 years and had the opportunity to thank him and meet his family,” Arlona Diggins said. “He had been an unemployed card dealer working part-time as a cab driver when he came to our rescue, and we had the chance to see him several more times before he passed away just a few years ago.”

It was a different time, a different generation, and an important time in our history. Dec. 7 is Pearl Harbor Day — a day to remember. Bob Diggins does.