Army & Navy – HEROES: Address Unknown

From January 1919, when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, Austrian-born Peter Tomich worked slowly up the promotion ladder. By Dec. 7, 1941 he wore the chevrons of a chief petty officer and the hash-marks of an oldtimer. That day, C.P.O. Tomich was below, where he belonged, when the Japs began their attack on the old battleship Utah in her berth at Pearl Harbor.

He stayed below, getting out his men and securing his boilers while the Jap airmen, apparently thinking the Utah, a target ship, was a carrier, gave the craft a savage working over. Tomich went down with her. For his devotion the President of the U.S. made the last entry in his personnel record: the posthumous award of the Medal of Honor.

Last week the Navy was still holding Peter Tomich’s medal. Reason: it could find no relative of the Utah’s hero to receive it.