Arnold William Erickson

Arnold William Erickson was born on September 28, 1908, in Port Wing, Wisconsin. He moved to Lowell, Washington as a child, and graduated from Everett High School in 1926. He attended Washington State College (WSC) from 1928 through 1933, graduating with a BS degree in Chemistry in 1932, and an MS degree in Chemistry on June 5, 1933. Following the completion of his Master's degree, Erickson returned home to Lowell where he worked as a chemist for Everett Pulp and Paper Company and Soundview Pulp Company. He registered for the draft on October 16, 1940, then enlisted in the United States Navy at the age of 34 in September 1942. He trained as a radio technician and was assigned to the USS Cassin Young, a destroyer built for speed. Beginning on April 29, 1944, the Cassin Young attacked Japanese strongholds in the Caroline Islands, an archipelago in the western Pacific. At the end of 1944, the destroyer moved to an operating area east of the Central Philippines where they took part in the invasion of Leyte. They continued to escort carriers providing air cover to American troops fighting for the liberation of the Philippines through the remainder of 1944. The Cassin Young took part in the Battle of Okinawa from April 1, 1945 through June 22, 1945, where it remained after the battle was over through the summer of 1945. Sixteen days before Japan's surrender, on July 30, 1945, the Cassin Young was hit by a kamikaze pilot; Arnold William Erickson died instantly, one of the twenty-two men to lose their lives in the attack. The Cassin Young has the distinction of being the last ship hit by kamikaze within the vicinity of Okinawa. Erickson is memorialized on the USS Cassin Young Honor Roll at Boston National Historical Park Massachusetts and on the WSU Veterans Memorial.