Robert Lee Jackson

A LOOK BACK

As I write this, the radio and television are blaring the news that

we have gone to war.

In the past, such news would have brought much fear to many of our

city’s residents because in those days we were a major oil producing

area and a sure military target for our enemies to bomb.

But today, with the fields covered over with expensive homes, that

fear no longer holds true.

In past columns we have read about the heroic efforts that our

townspeople displayed when our country was at war. This week we’ll be

going back again to World War II and look at the life of Bob Jackson,

Huntington Beach’s Chief Air Raid Warden.

In was in the 1890s that Lorenzen Jackson and his wife tilled the

soil on their farm in Sonoma County, northern California, and where

their son Robert Lee Jackson was born in Petaluma. Their son Robert

was named after that great Civil War general, Robert E. Lee.

The elder Jackson moved his family to San Diego County to live in

the town of Fallbrook when Robert was 4 years old.

Bob, as he was known to his friends, attended Fallbrook’s grammar

school for only one year because the family returned to Petaluma to

live.

The family again moved in 1906, this time to Mountain View, near

San Jose, so the elder Jackson could be near his work. He was helping

to build several buildings at nearby Stanford University.

After the work was completed, the family moved to Sawtelle, near

West Los Angeles, where Bob completed his elementary school

education. He graduated from Santa Monica High School and went on to

attend Los Angeles Business College where he majored in business

administration.

Bob’s first real job was with Associated Oil Co. and through that

company would be employed in the oil fields just south of Hollywood

in 1910.

In 1913, Bob opened an auto repair garage in Sawtelle and in 1916

he moved to Van Nuys to work as a mechanic there.

When World War I came along in 1918, Bob enlisted in the Army and

served with the 303rd Field Signal Battalion at Camp Dix in New

Jersey for six months.

His battalion was then sent to Europe, first to Liverpool,

England, and later to Marseilles, France. But for most of the war Bob

served at St. Mihiel and the Argonne in France where a good deal of

the fighting was going on.

Bob returned to California in May 1919 and was discharged from the

service at San Francisco the following month. Just after his

discharge Bob headed south to find his high school sweetheart, Marion

Inez Reed, who lived in Van Nuys.

On Dec. 4, 1919, Bob and Marion married moved to Santa Paula so

Bob could work in the oil fields for the Oak Ridge Oil Company.

In 1921, their son Robert Lee Jackson Jr. was born. In 1928, Bob’s

company was purchased by Texas Oil Company and after nine years in

Santa Paula, Bob was transferred to the company’s oil fields in

Huntington Beach as their production foreman.

When World War II erupted in Dec. 1941, Bob was appointed Chief

Air Raid Warden for Huntington Beach.

During the war, it was Bob’s duty to coordinate the many block air

raid wardens in our town and to report any unusual activities to the

military.

Bob’s son joined the Navy as a third class radioman and was

stationed at Treasure Island, in San Francisco Bay.

Bob chaired the city’s Fourth of July board in 1942 and he was on

the entertainment and sports committees of our chamber of commerce.

Bob was an active member of the Huntington Beach Lions Club and would

serve that organization as one of their presidents.

He also was a member of the local Masonic Lodge and American

Legion chapters, and at one time, Bob served on the high school’s

board of trustees.

Bob’s hobby during the war years were fishing, and he was an

active member of the Casting Club.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington

Beach resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at

P.O. Box 7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.