Sergeant Warren Dale Rasmussen, United States Army, Service Number: 20920790

Early Life

Warren Dale Rasmussen was born on 1 October 1922 in Los Angeles, California. His father, Ivan Jenson Rasmussen, born 1899 in Utah, died in 1971 was a Letter Carrier for the U.S. Postal Service. His mother, Elmina Ruth Kinney was born on 7 September 1901 in New Jersey and died in July 1980 in Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara County, California. Warren’s parents were married on 19 November 1919. Warren was the second of three sons in the family. His older brother Ivan Jr. was in the Army and was serving on Oahu during the time of the Japanese attack on 7 December 1941. Prior to joining the Army, Warren worked at a service station and had attended Compton Junior College.

Military

Warren Dale Rasmussen enlisted in the U.S. Army. After basic training and additional follow-on training, he was assigned to F Battery, 251st Coast Artillery at Camp Malakole on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.

The following is an excerpt of an article that appeared in the Honolulu Advertiser on January 21, 1941 under the title of "The Saga of the 251st C.A.":

“. . . As the potential of an impending conflict became increasingly clear; the Regiment was ordered on full alert in the field whenever sight of the Japanese Fleet was lost. Batteries of the Regiment were assigned defensive positions around the west shore of Pearl Harbor and the perimeter of Schofield Barracks, providing an anti-aircraft defense coordinated with the Navy and other Army units.

However, on December 7th, 1941, the day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; all carefully rehearsed procedures were of no avail. The Regiment was at Camp Malakole having just returned from a full alert in the field. After the standard Saturday morning inspection, half of the Regiment on that infamous Sunday was either sleeping or away from the Camp on weekend pass. Even so, the Regiment is officially credited with downing two enemy aircraft.”

Death and Burial

Warren Dale Rasmussen was declared Missing in Action, Non Recoverable (Killed in Action) on 7 December 1941. He, along with Sergeant Henry C. Blackwell and Corporal Clyde C. Brown had just taken off in rented airplanes from John Rodgers Airport on Oahu. They had only been in the air for a few minutes when they were attacked by seven Japanese planes and shot down during the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Thus, they became the first military casualties of the Pearl Harbor attack. Sergeant Warren Dale Rasmussen was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart Medal. He was memorialized in the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Honolulu County, Hawaii. A highly detailed account of his last few minutes can be found at: https://www.historynet.com/first-planes-down-at-pearl.htm.

Sources

https://www.newspapers.com/search/#query=Henry+C+Blackwell%2C+Jr&p_province=us-ca&dr_year=1940-1942

https://www.fold3.com/page/529997736/warren-d-rasmussen

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56119926/warren-d-rasmussen

https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=365985

https://army.togetherweserved.com/army/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApp?cmd=Profile&type=Person&ID=5382

https://www.historynet.com/first-planes-down-at-pearl.htm

http://militarymuseum.org/251stca.html
This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org/). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen person's name and read his/her story.
If you have any details, photos, or corrections for this story, please email me by clicking on my name.
CDR Robert "Red" Mulvanny-Contributing Author, Stories Behind the Stars

Rasmussen, Warren D., Sgt