PENINSULA MEMOIR: An honorable agent
Rolling Hills resident Darwin Horn, 90, lives to tell extraordinary tales as crew member on a WWII minesweeper ship and as longtime U.S. Secret Service agent guarding nine presidents
This past September, 90-year-old Darwin Horn was taken back to a time he lived on a ship with 105 other men. The tall, sprightly Rolling Hills resident was just 18, right out of Inglewood High School, when he boarded U.S.S. Serene amid World War II as one of its youngest members. Working in the engineering division of the minesweeper ship, he and the tightly knit crew cut hundreds of Japanese mines in the Western Pacific area.
More than seven decades after the fact, Horn received a proclamation honoring his two-year service on U.S.S. Serene from Assemblymember David Hadley, who presented the framed certificate in his Rolling Hills home.
“I not only accepted it for myself but for the whole crew,” Horn says now. “A lot of them have to be given credit for what I have done. It’s been an interesting life and it’s been fun.”
Friendship and camaraderie seem to be two recurring themes in his life. Horn, a two-time all star football player for Pepperdine University and former U.S. Secret Service agent who served nine American presidents, is never one to take credit despite overwhelming evidence that his prowess and amicable nature made him a natural leader. He speaks fondly of the lifelong friendships he’s found in both areas of service. He kept in touch with many of them through the Serene crew’s annual reunions, which continued for 44 years. Horn is one of the last surviving Serene crew members.
Horn lives to tell countless tales that are extraordinary in nature. He has penned these stories in two autobiographical hardcover books, “Dar’s Story: Memoirs of a Secret Service Agent” (2002) and “U.S.S. Serene AM-300: Memoirs of a World War II Minesweeper Crew” (2010). An avid journal writer and fact collector, he says each book took just 60 days to write. The latter is largely comprised of his journal entries as well as his letters written and received on board.
“When you become an author, your life changes,” Horn says. “It’s a very comforting feeling. It’s nice to become recognized as an author. Some people think I’m a celebrity.”
He chuckles and adds, “Oh well, it’s nothing.”
Born in St. Louis, Missouri on Aug. 20, 1925, Horn’s family moved to Inglewood when he was 11. His father was a mechanic by trade and had trouble finding work in their hometown. After high school, where he was an all-star football player, he enlisted in the service, continuing a multi-generational family legacy. Serene participated in the invasions of Iwo Jima, Okinawa and the Philippine Islands, and after the war was over, the crew remained on the water to sweep the remaining mines planted by the Japanese Navy.
“You can’t explain the feeling of going home after something like that,” Horn says. “It was a tremendous experience, and it greatly impacted all of our lives. So many of us became lifetime friends.”
Upon returning stateside, he enrolled at Los Angeles City College before transferring to Pepperdine University, where he became established as a star fullback for the football team. At 6-foot-2, “Big Dar” led the team in scoring all three years and to the national championships in 1947. Twice named an All Star, he was inducted to the Pepperdine University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1980.
At Pepperdine, while standing in line to register for classes, he met the love of his life, Shirley Ann, an elementary educator who retired from the career as a longtime principal at Los Alamitos Elementary School. The two were married for about 54 years and had two children, Darwin Jr. and Diane, before her death in 2006.
After graduation, he worked as an officer for the Los Angeles Police Department for two years, during which time he enrolled at USC for a master’s degree in Public Administration. At USC, he and his counselor were having a casual meeting when the counselor mentioned he had just had lunch with his contact at the U.S. Secret Service. He asked whether he’d be interested in joining. Horn said yes.
Without missing a beat, the counselor picked up the phone and called up his contact. “Hey Fred, I got a hot one for you,” Horn recalls him saying. After his interview, he successfully passed the exam. The background check took seven months — and not knowing whether he made it through, Horn resigned from LAPD and took an offer from the Pittsburgh Steelers. Two months into Steelers’ training camp in Pennsylvania, Horn received a call from the Secret Service confirming he was in. He boarded a westbound flight the next morning.
Over the next 30 years before his retirement in 1982, Horn served nine presidents, eight vice presidents and seven first ladies. In his home, he has framed portraits of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, painted and gifted to Horn by President Eisenhower, the first president he served. Other memorabilia include handwritten thank-you notes from Presidents Ford and Nixon, to name a few. His career spanning 30 years took him to 82 countries.
“Mother was the anchor,” his daughter Diane Gilman recalls. “We never knew where my dad was but we’d see him on the evening news standing behind the president.”
When her friends would ask her what her father did for a living, she’d avoid the topic until she had to answer.
“I’d say he was a screen door salesman,” she recalls. “It didn’t invite any more questions.”
The Horn family moved to the Peninsula in 1966. After retirement, Horn started some new ventures on his own: a private investigations firm, a publishing firm and a public speaker’s bureau. For some 20 years, he traveled to the Middle East, Africa and Europe to provide security for CEOs.
Horn’s story culminates with his two books, which were initially intended for his family but is inspiring many others with his tales full of zeal. When asked if he has any more projects brewing, Horn smiles.
“I’m just 90 years old and trying to survive,” he says. PEN