Peter Tomich

He secured the boilers as his ship capsized at Pearl Harbor.

Peter Tomich was born on 3 June 1893 in Prolog, then within Austria-Hungary. He immigrated to the United States as a young man and served in the Army during the First World War. After his Army discharge in January 1919, he enlisted in the United States Navy on 23 January. His early naval service included the destroyer USS Litchfield, and he rose to chief watertender. By 1941 he served aboard USS Utah, a former battleship converted to a training and target ship.

During the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Utah began to capsize after enemy bombing and torpedo attacks. Tomich remained in its engineering plant, ensuring the boilers were secured and fireroom personnel had left their stations. He lost his life while carrying out those duties.

Tomich received the Medal of Honor posthumously. Rear Admiral Monroe Kelly presented it to USS Tomich on 4 January 1944 when no living relatives could be found. His remains were not recovered from Utah. He is commemorated on the Wall of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

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. Although 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.