Incredibly, there were seven young sailors from rural small-town Fallbrook stationed in Hawaii at on December 7th 1941, that infamous day when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States into World War 2.   As boys, they knew each other in Fallbrook schools, and followed one another into the U.S. Navy to escape farm life.  In a town of barely 4,000 persons,[1] Fallbrook’s entire high school student body only numbered about 150 boys and girls.[2]
Fallbrook’s Pearl Harbor veterans:

1) Charles Swisher (USS Arizona) 
2) Francis Parkinson (USS Oklahoma)
3) Clayton Parkinson (USS Oklahoma)
4) Bob Boren (USS Oklahoma)
5) Preston Nix (USS California)
6) Bobby Ellis (USS Hull)
7) Jack Cornell (Midway Island)

Charles Swisher, Fallbrook High class of 1939, died along with thousands of other sailors and Marines when the battleship USS Arizona exploded and sank early Sunday morning.  Swisher, just 19 years old, was the first casualty from Fallbrook in the long world war that was to follow. [3]  The VFW Hall in Fallbrook is named for Charles Swisher.


Preston Nix, a classmate of Charles Swisher since grammar school, was trapped in the battleship USS California when it was torpedoed and sunk that same morning. Preston survived, but in the confusing aftermath of the attack, a telegram was sent from Washington D.C. to his father in Fallbrook reporting that Preston Nix was killed in the attack. It was a mistake.  The Navy had confused Preston with another sailor with the same last name.  Mr. Mathias Nix of Fallbrook soon received a note from his son saying that he was “OK”.  Initially, the local newspaper had reported that Preston Nix was Fallbrook’s first casualty, one week before Mr. Nix received the letter from son Preston, and the bad news about Charles Swisher became known. [4]


Clayton Parkinson, Fallbrook High class of 1940, was trapped below decks when the battleship USS Oklahoma was bombed and sunk.  He managed to escape through a small hatch and swim to the surface.    But the war was only just beginning.  Less than a year later, in August 1942 off the coast of Guadalcanal, Clayton’s new ship the USS Jarvis was sunk and lost with all hands. [5]

Francis Parkinson, Fallbrook High class of 1938, Clayton’s older brother, was also stationed on the Oklahoma with his brother.  Francis Parkinson survived the Pearl Harbor attack and the war.  At age 90 he was the longest serving member in the Fallbrook VFW.


Bob Boren, Fallbrook High class of 1940, a classmate of the Parkinson brothers, was the 3rd Fallbrook sailor serving on the USS Oklahoma.  Boren survived the war and returned home.  He later worked as a dairy manager in Oceanside for Safeway. [6]


Bobby Ellis, popular student/athlete at Fallbrook High class of 1939, Bobby was the grandson of the Ellis Hotel pioneer family.  Ellis was serving on the destroyer USS Hull on December 7, 1941.  The ship fought its way out of Pearl Harbor during the attack and went on to earn 10 battle stars in the Pacific.  Three years later in December 1944, during the liberation of the Philippines, the USS Hull foundered and sank during a typhoon.  Bobby Ellis was lost along with most of the crew.


Jack Cornell, Fallbrook High class of 1936, was the oldest and the first of this Fallbrook group to enlist in the Navy in the late 1930s. Cornell was a radio operator on Midway Island which the Japanese also attacked on December 7th.  Cornell received a commendation for coolly transmitting valuable information while his position was being shelled. After the war, he returned to Fallbrook to own and operate Cornell’s TV & Electronics for many years.  As a volunteer fireman, Cornell set up the Fallbrook volunteer fire dept with its first radio communications using war surplus equipment.

In 1991, on the 50th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, the Fallbrook Charles Swisher VFW post awarded Pearl Harbor Survivor medals to Francis Parkinson, Preston Nix, Bob Boren, and Jack Cornell, veterans who had enlisted in the Navy from Fallbrook.  After the ceremony, the four surviving veteran’s rode together as Grand Marshalls in the Fallbrook Christmas Parade.[7]

    Tom Frew,
    FHS Historian

    Footnotes

    1) 1940 U.S. Census.
    2)     1939-1940 Fallbrook High School yearbooks.
    3)     Fallbrook Enterprise Dec. 26, 1941.
    4)     Fallbrook Enterprise Dec. 19, 1941.
    5)     Fallbrook Enterprise, Sept 25, 1942.
    6)     Robert Sheldon Boren Obituary, North County Times, September 2002
    7)     Fallbrook Enterprise Dec. 5, 1991.