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World War II Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient
Chief Watertender Peter Tomich USN, (1893-1941)
Peter Tomich was born in Prolog, Austria, in what later became Yugoslavia, on 3 June 1893. After enlisting in the U.S. Navy in January 1919, he initially served in the destroyer Litchfield. By 1941, he had become a Chief Watertender on board the training and target ship Utah. When that ship was torpedoed during Japan's 7 December 1941 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 was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
The escort ship USS Tomich (DE-242), 1943-1974, was named in honor of Chief Watertender Tomich.
USS Utah (Battleship # 31, BB-31, later AG-16), 1911-1941 --
USS Utah, a 21,825-ton Florida class battleship, was built at Camden, New Jersey. Commissioned in August 1911, she operated in the Atlantic during her first years of service, made a voyage to the Mediterranean in 1913 and took part in the Vera Cruz incident a year later. Utah remained in the Atlantic during World War I and, in September-November 1918, was based in southern Ireland to provide a covering force for Allied convoys as they neared the British Isles.
Post-war, Utah operated along the U.S. east coast and in the Caribbean, but was assigned to European waters during 1921-22. In 1924-25, she made a good-will visit to South America. Extensively modernized later in 1925, Utah was employed as a unit of the U.S. Scouting Fleet. She went to the South Atlantic in late 1928 to carry President-Elect Herbert Hoover on the homeward-bound leg of his South American tour.
Converted to a radio-controlled target ship in 1931, and redesignated AG-16, Utah spent the rest of her career in this role, with additional duties as an anti-aircraft gunnery training ship beginning in the mid-1930s. In 1941, she was given additional guns to enhance her gunnery training mission, and was active with the U.S. Fleet in the Hawaiian area later in that year. On 7 December 1941, while moored at Pearl Harbor, Utah was hit by Japanese aerial torpedo attack, rolled over and sank. A few years later her hull was partially righted and moved closer to Ford Island, where she remains today.
Capsizing off Ford Island, during the attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941, after being torpedoed by Japanese aircraft .
Photographed from USS Tangier (AV-8), which was moored astern of Utah.
Note colors half-raised over fantail, boats nearby, and sheds covering Utah's after guns.
Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.
U.S. Navy Medal of Honor
Obverse and reverse of a Medal of Honor awarded posthumously to Chief Water Tender Peter Tomich for "extraordinary courage and disregard of his own safety" as USS Utah (AG-16) was sinking during the attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941.
Obverse
Reverse
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