Veterans Magazine 2021 - The War in Korea

Henry Dawkins
U.S. Navy
By: Tyler Meister
Henry Dawkins, now 91 years old, was born in South Carolina
in the early 1930s. Only 19 years later, he would enlist in the
United States Navy and head off for basic training in San
Diego, California, where he would go through extensive
training. After three deployments in Korea, running rescue
missions, avoiding explosive shells from the enemy and even
spending three consecutive Christmases on the bomb line,
Dawkins left the Navy with the rank of Petty Officer Second
Class and moved from California to Georgia.
Dawkins remembers several stories from his time in the
Navy, but one that has stuck with him all this time happened
during his time on the USS Halsey Powell, a Fletcherclass
destroyer. The crew of the Halsey Powell was called
to rescue the survivors of a crashed plane. The military
aircraft had crashed into a shallow bay, and the five surviving
members of the craft were left there, trapped.
The crew of the Halsey Powell made its way through the
shallow waters of the bay as it attempted to reach the
survivors; all the while, Korean soldiers fired shells at them.
“We had a hard time maneuvering in that shallow water,”
Dawkins said. Even through the shallow waters and reefs, the
crew was able to extract the remaining survivors, and rescue
survivors of another crash – a couple a crewmembers of a
downed plane that had been attempting to reach the first
crash. “We had to get out of there ’cause we were getting
fired on pretty heavy. Of course, we were firing our guns
too, ya’ know,” Dawkins said with a laugh. “We weren’t just
sitting there.”
Dawkins can remember other missions. He recalled working
the bomb line each Christmas, shelling the enemy to hold the
line. He remembered when an anchor snagged their ship to
a halt – just as a shell crashed into the water right in front of
them. But Dawkins also remembers coming home to his wife
after three tours in Korea, after the war had finally ended,
and deciding with her to move back to the East Coast, where
he has lived a long life and seen himself to be a prosperous
91 years old.
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