Robert R. Scott

He stayed at his flooded station while the ship’s guns fired

Robert Raymond Scott earned the Medal of Honor aboard USS California during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. A machinist’s mate first class, he was assigned to an air compressor when a torpedo hit flooded his compartment.

Although the other personnel evacuated, Scott remained to supply air while the ship’s guns continued firing. He died at Pearl Harbor, and his devotion to duty was recognized with a posthumous Medal of Honor.

Scott enlisted in the Navy in April 1938 and joined California that August. His years aboard the battleship preceded his final stand at Pearl Harbor.

Born in Massillon, Ohio, on July 13, 1915, Scott’s medal was presented to his mother in March 1942. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. His medal is held by the Ohio Military Museum in Massillon.

Medal of Honor citation

For conspicuous devotion to duty, extraordinary courage, and complete disregard for his own life, above and beyond the call of duty, during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. The compartment in the U.S.S. California in which the air compressor to which Scott was assigned as his battle station was flooded as the result of a torpedo hit. The remainder of the personnel evacuated that compartment but Scott refused to leave, saying words to the effect "This is my station and I will stay and give them air as long as the guns are going."