Thomas James Reeves

Thomas James Reeves was born on 9 December 1895 at Thomaston, Connecticut. He first entered naval service during the First World War, enlisting in the United States Naval Reserve on 20 July 1917 as an electrician third class. After being released from duty in July 1919, he returned to active service and transferred into the Regular Navy in April 1920. He re-enlisted on 12 October 1921, making the Navy his career. Over the following two decades he advanced through the ratings and was serving as a senior radioman/radio electrician by the time of the Second World War.

By 7 December 1941, Reeves was serving aboard the battleship USS California (BB-44) at Pearl Harbor. During the Japanese attack, California’s mechanized ammunition hoists were disabled, leaving the ship’s anti-aircraft guns in urgent need of ammunition. Reeves, acting on his own initiative, entered a burning passageway and helped pass ammunition by hand to keep the guns supplied. He remained at his post despite smoke and fire until he was overcome, and died in the action.

For his conduct aboard USS California, Reeves was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society records his rank as Radio Electrician, Warrant Officer 1, his action date as 7 December 1941, and his action place as Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory. The medal was presented in March 1942, mailed to his brother’s home in Thomaston, Connecticut, by Secretary of the Navy William F. Knox.

Reeves was buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaii, with an in-memoriam marker at St. Thomas Cemetery in Thomaston, Connecticut. In 1943, the U.S. Navy further honoured him by naming the destroyer escort USS Reeves (DE-156) after him.