Alfonso D. Boone was born August 1st 1894, in Memphis,
Tennessee. In 1917 he graduated from a segregated high school named
Lemoyne Normal Institute. After he graduated he became a
Chauffeur. In March 1918 he was inducted into the Tennessee Military; he served in the U.S. Army during World War I. He received honorable discharge in 1919 due to an injury. He attended the University of West Tennessee to study dentistry. After graduating he moved to Oakland, California in the late 1920’s. He met a singer by the name of Marguerite E. Johns and married her in 1934. They had a daughter by the name of Estralita Carmen that year. And another in 1937 named Guadalupe Dolores. He then moved to Richmond, California where he was employed at the U.S. Naval yard as a civilian.

On September 29th 1941 he received orders from a Navy commandant to report for duty at Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Hawaii. He sailed from San Francisco, California aboard the USS Whanton and arrived at Pearl Harbor on October 10th, 1941 where he was paid 16 cents an hour. He worked his way up to the top and was considered one of the top welders.

On December 7th 1941 Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor at 7:57 am. They had many reasons to do it; wanted to increase power, wanted the U.S. to enter World War II, the U.S. stopped giving them oil/raw materials, and they wanted to destroy the Pacific Fleet. There were two waves of attacks. The first one was launched at 6:00 am of 183 planes. The 2nd wave of 167 planes took off at 7:15 am.

Alfonso was walking on the beach with his friends when he saw the attack unfold. Planes were everywhere swooping down extremely low and bombing the ships. There were a good many suicide A.K.A kamikaze bombers who would kill themselves by nose-diving into ships. Some of the planes flew right above the barracks and would open fire with their machine-guns killing dozens in minutes.

He ran to his ship and saw that the mast was on fire. The captain of the ship asked a welder to climb up and cut it off. No one volunteered until he reluctantly did. He climbed regardless of the danger and his fear of heights. He cut it off and saved the ship. There was another incident where a man was trapped by steel. He was called in to free him. There wasn’t a lot of light and very little work space, he had to calculate everything precisely or else the man would die, fortunately he did it successfully.

The whole ordeal was 90 minutes of hell. The damage was extensive; 2403 dead, 68 of them civilians, 1178 wounded. Over 1000 of the dead were from the battleship Arizona which was struck multiple times by rockets when it finally exploded. 5 battleships, 3 destroyers, and 188 planes were destroyed pretty much half of the entire U.S. naval force.

The next day the United States and Great Britain declared war on Japan. Officially it was the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Greece, Yugoslavia, France and 9 other countries vs. Japan, Germany and Italy. The damage report from the Japanese was; 64 dead, 1 captured. 29 planes and 4 subs were destroyed. Out of the 6 aircraft carriers, 4 battleships, 18 destroyers, 3 cruisers, 26 fleet subs, 5 midget subs, 8 oilers and 441 planes, it isn’t that big of a hit1.

After Pearl Harbor Alfonso returned home due to a family emergency. The attack at Pearl Harbor took a huge blow at America emotionally. The whole United States, who were split prior to the attack, formed together to good against Japan. The government even went so far to order that all Japanese-Americans be put into internment camps until the war was over2.

There was also an extensive search of what happened at Pearl Harbor. They found out that the first wave of Japanese planes was
spotted on the radar but were dismissed as American B-2 bombers.
There were also many signs implying that the Japanese were going to
attack the Pacific. Including a 13 part message which pretty much
stated it, but no action was taken. Also Pearl Harbor was not prepared
at all for any sort of aerial attack. Since all the planes were wing to
wing they couldn’t get off the ground fast, and almost all of the
ammunition was locked up3. There was even a conspiracy that Roosevelt
let the attack happen so he had an excuse to enter the war, but of
course it didn’t get to far.

The government found extensive information about the Japanese plans to attack Pearl Harbor. They sent spies to Pearl Harbor to do reconnaissance work. They would make sketches of the harbor and locations of the ships. They would get the number of planes, pilots, hangers, barracks and soldiers. It took 10 months of planning and 1 year to train until they were ready. The pilots trained all during the summer of 1941. Scientists had to create special rockets that could go in shallow water and could pierce the heavy armor of the ships. They dubbed the attack “Operation Z”5.

Boone transferred to the U.S. Naval Security Department in Oakland, California. In 1946 he transferred to U.S. Naval Radio Station in Dixon, California as an electronics assistant. As his working life dwindled down he took a job as a lab assistant at the University of California until retirement in 1962.

He put all of his time and energy into poetry, before that time he had written poetry since the 30’s. he used the pen name of Rex Sebastian. In the 60’s he joined the El Camino Poets where he was finally accepted and appreciated for his work, since before then he was segregated and didn’t fit in.

he began to take writing classes at various colleges including; Sacramento City College, University of California Davis, YWCA in Sacramento and University of California, Berkeley Extension. At a poetry convention he met an actor by the name of Marvin Miller who played Michael Anthony on the show “The Millionaire”. Marvin read his poem “The Dust Speaks” at the convention and it received honorable mention.

The Dust Speaks

“I am the dust of the earth, immortal clay,
Rising from the tread of man and beast;
Leading restless funeral marches
Along my boundless necropolis

I am the pulse and mood of yesterday’s histories
Mysteries, secret love and wanderings,
Particled beyond aggregation by those that follow me.
Who in tranquil mood today declare;
Back to dust all shall surely come,
Some willingly, other by violence and constraint;
Statesman, prophet and saint
All to inevitable dust!

Dust of the earth, O immortal clay,
Shall claim all alike; the humble, the proud.
Stifled by ominous halos by day, enveloped like a somber shroud by night.
Remembered or forgotten, it matters not.
Rank and station bear even less concern,
For in that billowing and rolling whirlwind all shall be caught”

In 1964 he authored “The Dust Speaks” his first book of poetry. He was dubbed “the Bard of Dixon” because of his influences in the town.

In 1967 the city of Dixon asked him to write the dedication poem to a new post office. He was very honored by this. He published two more writings of his; “Windows of Hope” in 1967 and “Hemlock and Wine” a book of his original poetry. He had articles in magazines like “Laurel Leaves”, “Poetry Quarterly” and “American Bard”. His name also appeared in the “International Who’s Who in Poetry” in 1970-1971. I’ve touched on a few of the many honors, achievements, and accomplishments of Alfonso D. Boone, as his wife, and two daughters knew him – husband, father, poet – a very special man whom they loved very much. Alfonso was a gentle soul, filled with laughter, joy, kindness and love for all peoples. Everyone loved him and had kind words to speak about him. He passed from this life at the age of 84 – very gently as was his nature.