Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Kim Dixon installed 181 flags in Ogden's Dee Memorial Park to mark Veteran's Day.
- The flags represent the 181 service members from Weber County killed during World War II.
- Dixon, inspired by her late father's World War II service, is compiling a series of self-published books documenting the role of Weber County and its residents in the war.
OGDEN — What started 11 years ago as a search to learn more about her late father's World War II service has turned into a deep dive into Weber County's role during the war for Kim Dixon.
"I was trying to document my dad's story," she said.
Along the way, her efforts expanded, and so far, Dixon has compiled three self-published, self-funded coffee-table-style books on the subject and launched a podcast, with 53 episodes and counting. On Tuesday, she installed a field of 181 flags at Dee Memorial Park in Ogden in honor of Veterans Day — more specifically, the 181 Weber County service members killed during World War II.
"It's just in their honor for the 80th anniversary of the end of the war," she said. She had been planning to create a field of flags to honor the 181 service members in 2020, on the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in 1945, but was waylaid by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dixon, who lives in West Haven, launched her World War II research efforts in 2014. Initially hoping to dig up information about her father's service in the U.S. Navy, she expanded the scope of her efforts when she realized how much information was available about the war and its players from Weber County in the pages of the Ogden Standard-Examiner, now the Standard-Examiner.
She carefully went through each edition from Pearl Harbor Day, Dec. 7, 1941, through the end of the war, culling information about the war and those from the area who shipped off to aid in the effort.
"An Ogden youth, Blaine Russell Doman, whose parents are Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Doman, 3527 Porter, was assigned to the U.S. destroyer Blue, recently sunk by enemy action in the South Pacific, according to relatives in Ogden," reads one clipping in the first of Dixon's books. "The Navy announced there were a few casualties. So far, the fate of the Ogden youth is unknown."
Thus far, Dixon has published three books with a fourth nearly complete and a fifth in the works. The first two, "Weber County's Greatest Generation: December 1941-1942" and "Weber County's Greatest Generation: December 1943," focus on the war effort in Weber County; two more are in the works, focused on 1944 and 1945.
The just-completed book, "The Price We Paid," tells the stories of the 181 service members from Weber County who died during the war.
Dixon's father, Donald Skeen, served in the Pacific as a shipfitter third class in the Navy, leaving Plain City as an 18-year-old to take part in the war effort. He served aboard the USS Hocking, helping remove soldiers wounded in the battles of Okinawa and Iwo Jima, among other things.
One of the most chilling stories Donald Skeen told his daughter was about the suicide attacks on U.S. Navy ships by Japanese kamikaze pilots that he regularly witnessed. "They would sit and watch the kamikazes go into the ships, and it was terrifying," recalled Dixon, a member of the West Haven City Council.
In her research, though, Dixon has come to appreciate the efforts of all who served in the war. Some 6,000 men and women from Weber County alone served in World War II, and the 181 men who died ranged in age from 17 to 46. Some died in battle, some died in accidents, and some died of disease.
"They just went. There were no questions asked," Dixon said. "Their love of country was just amazing for them. They knew it was a duty, so they went and served honorably."
Indeed, when Dixon asked her dad about his military service, he told her he wouldn't have changed a thing. "That was the greatest experience and privilege in my life," she said he told her.
Dixon chose Dee Memorial Park for the 181-flag display because it's the former site of Dee Memorial Hospital, where she suspects many of the county's World War II service members were born. She planned to remove the flags and a banner noting their significance before sundown on Tuesday.
In other Veterans Day activities in Weber County on Tuesday, the Have a Heart Home Foundation and several of its sponsoring organizations held a ceremony to turn over the key to a new home in the Taylor area to Nicole and Tony Valdez and their family.
Tony Valdez is a retired U.S. Air Force service member, and the Have a Heart Home Foundation aids those in need. The new home was provided to him and his family at a significantly discounted cost.
