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ordered to Camp Andrews Recreation Center at Nanakuli Beach. We stayed there for quite a while and then we were ordered to Kaneohe Naval Air Station. We were there for quite a while and then we were ordered to a spot in Honolulu and it was here that I heard that they needed a trumpet player on the USS New Mexico. I made a request and was ordered aboard the USS New Mexico on May 1, 1943. On the lO we left for the Aleutian Islands. As we were on our way up to the Aleutians, my brother, who was a gunner's mate on the USS Detroit, a light cruiser, they were on their way back from there. My brother was in the Navy for two years and our paths never crossed. On the 16th we anchored off of Adak. On the 22"d of July the American and Canadian troops landed on Kiska. On August 28 we left the Aleutians for Bremerton, Washington Naval Shipyard. We stayed there for a couple of weeks and then on to Long Island, California for one week and then back to Pearl Harbor arriving October 25th. Then on November 1 we left for Makin Island in the Gilberts. And there we shelled Makin Island before the Army landed. December 5th we got back to Pearl Harbor and on December 8th another man and I received orders for shore duty at Pensacola Naval Air Station. Pensacola had about seven outlying airfields. After we arrived we went on a 30 day leave. After we got back from our 30 day leave we were ordered to Barin Navy Air Field at Foley, Alabama. We went to Fairhope, Alabama on the weekends for R&R. I met Mary Anna Arnold in 1944 and we were married in 1948. In November of 1945 several of us were transferred to the School of Music in Washington, D.C. They put us in Unit Band Number 144. We were the first band on the newly commissioned carrier USS Kearsarge (CV-33) in the spring of 1946. On July 30, 1946 I was discharged from the United States Navy. Aloha. The Navy runs in the Kreek and Arnold family blood. My nephew, Lewis Arnold, is a Commander in the Navy and my grandson, Patrick Kreek is going to Flight Officer Training School on August 22nd, which upon completion, he will be commissioned an
Ensign in the United State Navy. Aloha. Mr. Misenhimer Let me back up and ask you some questions. When you left the Nevada, what did you go on?
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Dean R. Kreek. Kreek joined the Navy in July 1940. He became a musician who played the trumpet in various Navy bands throughout World War II. Kreek was on board the USS Nevada (BB-36) during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was playing morning colors when the attack began. Kreek describes the Nevada getting underway and taking damage. After the attack he was transferred to Yard Tug 142 and later to USS New Mexico (BB-40), which traveled to the Aleutians. Kreek was then sent stateside until he became a member of the first band for the USS Kearsarge (CV-33). He was discharged in July 1946.
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Kreek, Dean R.Oral History Interview with Dean R. Kreek, July 21, 2010,
text,
July 21, 2010;
Fredericksburg, Texas.
(https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1605818/m1/4/:
accessed July 4, 2024),
University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.;
crediting National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation.
