WWII Nurse Donates Cherished Bullet to Pearl Harbor National Memorial

During the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Fire Controlman Dean Darrow was serving aboard the USS West Virginia (BB 48) when it was struck by torpedoes. He was flung into the harbor’s oily, burning water. After Darrow was rescued and his wounds were treated, he was cleared for duty. But health complications kept him from returning to combat. Darrow was transferred to Mare Island Naval Hospital in California where an X-ray revealed a bullet lodged in the muscle of his heart. As he was being prepped for surgery, Darrow asked the nurse that had been assigned to him, Alice Beck, to go on liberty with him if he made it through the procedure. Beck agreed but wasn’t sure if the young Sailor would survive.

Fortunately, the bullet was successfully removed from Darrow’s heart and he and Beck went on their date. The two fell in love and later married. They raised four children: two sons, and two daughters. The bullet became a cherished keepsake of survival and the couple’s decades-long love story.

Darrow died in 1991 and Alice held on to the bullet, which meant everything them.

Despite her attachment to the memento, Alice, now 106 years old, made the decision to donate the bullet so others could understand its significance – as a symbol of their love and to honor all who served and sacrificed.

Darrow and her family traveled to Hawaii where she gave the bullet to a museum technician from the National Park Service which manages the Pearl Harbor National Memorial on Sept. 18, 2025.

Alice said donating the bullet was bittersweet. She was saddened to part with the memento that brought her and her husband together but was also happy that the bullet could serve as a reminder of the devastation caused by war.

“This is the right place for it to be, where it can be displayed, and other boys can see it. Youngsters can see it, and realize what war is like,” she said flanked by Navy Sailors from the Arizona Detachment and National Park Service rangers who were on hand for the transfer of a piece of World War II history.

“The heart that she has to have to be able to pass down something that she cherishes so much is a big deal,” said Damage Controlman 3rd Class Paul Esposito, a Sailor from the Arizona Detachment, the unit that ferries over 4,000 visitors daily to the Arizona Memorial. “And it shows the respect and appreciation that she has for the Navy.”

“We are honored to receive this piece of history,” said Mikael Fox, the museum technician with the National Park Service, who accepted the bullet and is working with the Darrow family to collect historical information about Dean and Alice Darrow for the Pearl Harbor National Memorial’s website and for a future exhibit.

In a short biography of her father’s life, Becky Mitchell recalled her parents’ fond memories of how the bullet brought them together.

“Dean would sometimes say: ‘The best thing I ever got out of the Navy was my nurse’. Alice would then reply: ‘After the surgery, it left a hole in his heart. I was able to fill that hole with my love.’”

Museum technician Fox said the Darrows’ story of love and resilience in the aftermath of Dec. 7 is representative of the powerful transformation depicted in the Tree of Life monument at the Arizona Memorial Visitors Center. The Tree of Life design is also featured on both side walls in the USS Arizona Memorial’s shrine room, allowing natural lighting to illuminate the names of fallen service members.

“The idea behind that sculpture is that even in the darkest moments under the darkest clouds, you can always find these bits of light filtering through, and I think the Alice and Dean story really embodies that,” Fox said. “This idea that in the aftermath of this tragedy so many had died and with Dean’s life at risk they found each other, and they continued to have each other for nearly 50 years.”