Peter Tomich

{{Short description|US Navy Medal of Honor recipient (1893–1941)}}

{{Infobox military person

| name = Peter Tomich
Petar Herceg 'Tonić'

| birth_date = {{birth date|1893|6|3}}

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1941|12|7|1893|6|3}}

| birth_place = Prolog, Ljubuški, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria-Hungary

| death_place = Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii

| placeofburial =

| placeofburial_label = Place of burial

| image = Peter Tomich.jpg

| caption = Chief Watertender Peter Tomich

| nickname =

| allegiance = {{Flag|United States of America|1912}}

| branch = {{army|USA}}
{{Flag|United States Navy}}

| serviceyears = 1917–1919 (Army)
1919–1941 (Navy)

| rank = Chief Watertender (Navy)

| commands =

| unit = {{USS|Litchfield|DD-336}}
{{USS|Utah|BB-31}}

| battles = World War I
World War II

Attack on Pearl Harbor{{KIA}}

| awards = 35 px Medal of Honor

}}

Petar Herceg 'Tonić' (later anglicized as Peter Tomich; June 3, 1893 – December 7, 1941) was a United States Navy sailor of Herzegovinian Croat descent who received the United States military's highest award, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in World War II.Hagan (2004), pp. 435–36.

Biography

Tomich was an ethnic Croat from Herzegovina born as Petar Herceg (family nickname 'Tonić') in Prolog near Ljubuški, under Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He immigrated to the United States in 1913 and joined the US Army in 1917.{{cite web|url=http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=b11ccde609eee210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=7cb30350addee210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD |title=Navy Chief Watertender Peter Tomich - World War II | USCIS |publisher=Uscis.gov |date= |access-date=2015-11-24}}

=World War I=

Tomich served in the US Army during World War I and enlisted in the US Navy in 1919, where he initially served on the destroyer {{USS|Litchfield|DD-336}}.

=World War II=

{{multiple image

| align = right

| image1 = Peter Tomich's Medal of Honor.jpg

| width1 = 100

| alt1 =

| caption1 =

| image2 = Peter Tomich's Medal of Honor (reverse).jpg

| width2 = 100

| alt2 =

| caption2 =

| footer = Petar Tomich's Medal of Honor, awarded by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

}}

By 1941, he had become a chief watertender on board the training and target ship {{USS|Utah|BB-31|6}}. On December 7, 1941, while the ship lay in Pearl Harbor, moored off Ford Island, she was torpedoed during Japan's raid on Pearl Harbor. Tomich was on duty in a boiler room. As Utah began to capsize, he remained below, securing the boilers and making certain that other men escaped, and so lost his life. For his "distinguished conduct and extraordinary courage" at that time, he posthumously received the Medal of Honor. His Medal of Honor was on display at the Navy's Senior Enlisted Academy (Tomich Hall). Later, the decoration was presented to Tomich's family on the aircraft carrier {{USS|Enterprise|CVN-65|6}} in the southern Adriatic city of Split in Croatia, on 18 May 2006, sixty-four years after US President Franklin D. Roosevelt awarded it to him.{{cite web|url=http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9292/1/President-Mesiae-decorated-the-US-Admiral-Lunney-with-the-Order-of-Trefoil.html |title=President Mesić decorated the US Admiral Lunney with the Order of Trefoil |publisher=Croatia.org |date= |access-date=2015-11-24}}

Awards and honors

style="margin:1em auto; text-align:center;"

|colspan="3"|{{Ribbon devices|number=0|type=award-star|ribbon=Medal of Honor ribbon.svg|width=106|alt=A light blue ribbon with five white five pointed stars}}

{{Ribbon devices|number=0|type=award-star|ribbon=Purple Heart ribbon.svg|width=106}}

|{{Ribbon devices|number=|type=service-star|ribbon=U.S._Navy_Good_Conduct_Medal_ribbon.svg|width=106}}

|{{Ribbon devices|number=|type=service-star|ribbon=World War I Victory Medal ribbon.svg|width=106}}

{{Ribbon devices|number=1|type=service-star|ribbon=American Defense Service Medal ribbon.svg|width=106}}

|{{Ribbon devices|number=1|type=service-star|ribbon=Asiatic-Pacific Campaign ribbon.svg|width=106}}

|{{Ribbon devices|number=0|type=service-star|ribbon=World War II Victory Medal ribbon.svg|width=106}}

class="wikitable" style="margin:1em auto; text-align:center;"

colspan="5"|Medal of Honor

colspan=3|Purple Heart

|Navy Good Conduct Medal

|World War I Victory Medal

colspan=3|American Defense Service Medal
with Fleet clasp

|Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
with Campaign star

|World War II Victory Medal

=Medal of Honor citation=

For distinguished conduct in the line of his profession and extraordinary courage and disregard of his own safety during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor by the Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. Despite realizing that the ship was capsizing as a result of enemy bombing and torpedoing, Tomich remained at his post in the engineering plant of the U.S.S. Utah until he saw that all boilers were secured and all fireroom personnel had left their stations, and by so doing, lost his own life."{{cite web

|access-date = December 6, 2010

|url = http://www.history.army.mil/html/moh/wwII-t-z.html

|title = Medal of Honor recipients

|publisher = United States Army Center of Military History

|date = December 3, 2010

|archive-date = February 12, 2009

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090212153635/http://www.history.army.mil/html/moh/wwII-t-z.html

|url-status = dead

}}

=Legacy=

The destroyer escort {{USS|Tomich|DE-242}}, 1943–1974, was named in honor of Chief Watertender Tomich.[https://web.archive.org/web/20040315001510/http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/t6/tomich.htm] [http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20121007153720/http%3A//www%2Ehistory%2Enavy%2Emil/danfs/t6/tomich%2Ehtm Archived copy] at the Library of Congress (October 7, 2012).
The United States Navy Senior Enlisted Academy in Newport, RI is named Tomich Hall in honor of Chief Watertender Tomich.{{cite web|url=http://www.uscis.gov/about-us/find-uscis-office/immigrant-medal-honor-recipients/navy-chief-watertender-peter-tomich-world-war-ii |title=Navy Chief Watertender Peter Tomich - World War II | USCIS |publisher=Uscis.gov |date= 29 June 2011|access-date=2015-11-24}}
The Steam Propulsion Training Facility at Service School Command Great Lakes is named in honor of Chief Watertender Tomich.{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1993/03/14/the-navy-on-our-shore/|title=The Navy On Our Shore|date=14 March 1993 |publisher=}}
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Headquarters Conference Room in Washington, D.C., is named the Peter Tomich Conference Center.

References

Bibliography

{{cite book | last=Hagan | first=John | title=Chief Petty Officer's Guide | publisher=Naval Institute Press | location=Annapolis | year=2004 | isbn=1-59114-459-0}}

Category:1893 births

Category:1941 deaths

Category:People from Ljubuški

Category:American people of Croatian descent

Category:Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the United States

Category:United States Army soldiers

Category:United States Navy sailors

Category:United States Army personnel of World War I

Category:United States Navy personnel killed in World War II

Category:United States Navy Medal of Honor recipients

Category:Foreign-born Medal of Honor recipients

Category:Deaths by Japanese airstrikes during the attack on Pearl Harbor