Dewey Dykstra

Dewey (born Douwe) Dykstra was the second of six children born to Minze and Celia (Jongetes) Dykstra in Larchwood, Lyon County, Iowa on the last day of May in 1922. In the late 1930's, the family moved to Jackson County, Minnesota, but by 1940, they moved on to Los Angeles County, California where Mr. Dyksta found work with Consolidated Steel Coop in Wilmington, California while living in nearby Bellflower.

In 1944, Dewey was drafted and mustered into the navy on the 30th of June, 1944, a month before his twenty-second birthday. The war ended soon enough, and troops were withdrawing at a rapid pace. Dewey was assigned to Scotch Cap Lighthouse, a Coast Guard installation off the coast of Alaska. The lighthouse stood at the easternmost tip of the Eastern Aleutian Islands, on the island of Unimak, where it rose almost a hundred feet above sea level.

In the wee hours of April 1, 1946, S1C Dewey Dykstra was one of five service men killed when Unimak experienced a tidal wave that destroyed the building and ended their lives. The body of Paul Ness was the first and only to be found and identified. His body was initially buried on site, and later moved to Acacia Memorial Park and Funeral Home, Lake Forest Park, King County, Washington.

The other four men's bodies were not identifiable and they were placed in a common casket and buried in a common grave on site. It is not readily known when these bodies were moved to their final resting place in Lincoln County, Nebraska, where they rest today.