Reo Robbins

Reo Robbins was born in Burley, Idaho 2 September 1917, the second of 3 children. At age 15 his father died and his mother remarried. His stepfather, Leonard Bramwell, moved the family to Klamath Falls, Oregon where he owned a small farm. Reo did not care for farm life and at age 18, just before graduating from High School, joined the Navy. His first ship was the USS West Virginia, on which he became a signalman. While on the West Virginia(WV), his first enlistment expired. Whether he intended to remain in the Navy or not, he was denied discharge, probably owing to the world situation at the time, and spent the next 17 years in the Navy, retiring in 1952 as a Chief Petty Officer. At one time during his service, he was offered officer candidacy but declined for personal reasons, which decision he later, though never severely, regretted, finding contentment in his existing rank and duties.

It was while he was stationed aboard the West Virginia at Pearl Harbor that the Pacific Fleet was there attacked. He escaped the sinking of the WV by climbing down the ship's mooring lines. From Pearl Harbor, he was transferred to the Mugford and, later, the Keosangua. During the years that followed, he also served on other ships, seeing action in the battle of Guadalcanal in August 1943. On one ship during the war, he narrowly escaped death when, having just gone below deck, a kamikaze plane or a bomb struck the ship. He spoke once of seeing men floating, alive, in the ocean, many of whom died as soon as they were raised from the water, from the shock of air touching their wounds. In the years following the war, he spoke of his experiences only with a degree of reluctance, often commenting that he'd lost a number of friends during his service. He was, at times, a boot camp instructor and navigator, but always preferred his role as signalman.

While stationed in Long Beach, California in 1944, he met Rosemary Worthington, then in the Women's Army Corp. They married 5 January 1945 in Long Beach. They had two daughters and a son; all born while Reo was still serving in the Navy.

Retiring with a medical discharge in 1952 after serving in the Korean War, Reo moved to Hayward, California and, later, Fremont. There he lived with his wife and children until 1966, when the family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he died 20 September 1983. The only regret he expressed at that time was that he had wanted to attend a reunion that year of the crewmembers of the USS West Virginia, which his final illness had made impossible.

Biography provided by Reo Robbins' son.

From the guide to the Reo Robbins photograph collection, circa 1940-1945, (J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah)