Peter Tomich was born on June 3, 1893 in Prolog, Austria in what is now Bosnia-Herzegovina near the Croatian border. His true name is Petar Herceg-Tonic but he went by both Peter Tonich and Peter Tomich.

After immigrating to the United States in 1914, Tonich enlisted in the U.S. Army at Fort Slocum, New York on June 6, 1917, and served with the 12th Company, 3rd Training Battalion, 154th Depot Brigade, Camp Greene, North Carolina. He also served with Company L, 47th Infantry at Camp Greene. He was honorably discharged January 13, 1919.

Tonich was naturalized at Charlotte, North Carolina on October 19, 1918. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy at Newark, New Jersey, on January 23, 1919, at which time his name was recorded as Tomich.

Tomich initially served on the destroyer, USS Litchfield. His service transcript is incomplete and shows him on the Litchfield until 1932. The 1920 census shows him as a Fireman Second Class aboard the USS Rochester. Tomich served continuously in the Navy and was advanced to the rating of Chief Watertender on June 4, 1930. By April 8, 1937, he was aboard the USS Utah. He reenlisted aboard Utah at San Pedro, California on October 7, 1939, for another 4-year tour.

The Utah was a former battleship designated (BB-31). She was converted to a mobile target ship in 1931, and redesignated AG-16 meaning miscellaneous auxiliary ship. In 1935, she also became the home of a fleet machine gun school and served as an anti-aircraft gunnery training ship.

On December 7, 1941, just before 8:00 a.m., Hawaiian time, Japanese aircraft from at least four fleet carriers struck the Pacific Fleet as it lay in port at Pearl Harbor. The Utah was at Pearl Harbor but she was not moored on ‘Battleship row’, she was in ‘Carrier Row’ and moored at Berth F-11.

Some historians believe that the Japanese pilots mistook her for an aircraft carrier which they expected to be moored there. The Utah was one of the first ships struck during the attack. She was struck with what was believed to be two aerial torpedoes.

The senior officer aboard the Utah ordered abandon ship when he realized the ship was about to capsize due to the inrushing sea water. The relentless Japanese pilots strafed the men as they abandoned ship. The listing or tilting increased and the mooring lines broke. The ship capsized at 8:12 a.m.

Tomich heard the order to abandon ship but instead of doing so, chose to remain at his station and secure (turn off) the boilers. Turning off the boilers would prevent the boilers from rupturing and exploding when they were flooded by the cold sea water rushing in. He also made sure that all fireroom personnel had left the ship.

Tomich’s actions kept the ship from exploding and enabled many of his shipmates to escape but it cost him his life. Tomich was initially reported missing but this was changed in January 1942 retroactive to December 7th. The muster roll reads “Died 12-7-41 In Combat With The Enemy At Pearl Harbor, T. H. (Territory of Hawaii, Hawaii did not become a state until 1959).

Tomich’s award of the Medal of Honor was announced on March 15, 1942. His citation reads: “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.”

As were many of the early awards of the Medal of Honor during WWII, the Navy planned to send Tomich’s Medal to his next of kin, a cousin John Tomich, with a California address. The letter informing him of Tomich’s death was returned undeliverable. Thus began a 64-year delay in presenting the Medal to his family.

Tomich received other honors for his sacrifice. The Navy commissioned a destroyer escort in his honor. The USS Tomich (DE-242) was laid down on September 15, 1942 at Houston, Texas, by the Brown Shipbuilding Company. It was launched on December 28, 1942; sponsored by Mrs. O. L. Hammonds, who bore no relation to Tomich, but had four sons in the military.

Tomich’s Medal of Honor was presented to the USS Tomich in January 1944 where it remained until she was decommissioned in September 1946. The Tomich received one battle star for her World War II service.

In 1947, the State of Utah made Tomich an honorary citizen of Utah and in May 1947, the Navy presented the Medal to the state in the Utah Capitol rotunda. At some point, the State of Utah returned the Medal back to the Navy.

In 1997 the president of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society (CMOHS), Paul W. Bucha, a Vietnam recipient, wrote a letter to Navy Rear Admiral J. Robert Lunney of the New York Naval Milita stating that Tomich’s Medal of Honor was unclaimed and was the only one as such in the 20th century. As the Admiral was to soon visit Croatia, would he be receptive to assisting with finding a Next of Kin for Tomich. The challenge was accepted.

It took many years and painstaking research but records were found and Tomich’s family was located. There were many legal hurdles as well.

In 2006, aboard the USS Enterprise, in Split, Croatia, Admiral Harry Ulrich, commander of U.S. Forces Europe, presented Tomich’s Medal of Honor to retired Croatian army Lieutenant Colonel, Srecko Herzeg-Tonic. Lieutenant Colonel Tonic is in fact, the grandson of Tomich's cousin, John Tomich, who was listed as Tomich’s Next of Kin but who the Navy could not locate. Rear Admiral Lunney also spoke at the presentation. Video of the presentation is on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=- 3Uoy6y9NyY

Tomich’s body was never recovered. He along with 57 of his shipmates are entombed in the Utah which is still at Pearl Harbor, about a mile from the more famous USS Arizona memorial.

Tomich is memorialized at All Souls Cemetery (Section 23 by flagpole), Chardon, OH. The cemetery has many Croatian internments.

Compiled by Gayle Alvarez, Medal of Honor Historical Society

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Sources and additional reading material for Peter Tomich

54th Annual Reunion Army and Navy Legion of Valor, New York, 1944 (contains short biographies of both posthumous and living recipients)

Pearl Harbor’s Hidden Heroes: The 18 Medals of Honor Awarded for Bravery in the Hawaiian Islands During World War II: 1941, 1942, and 1945, Colonel Charles A. Jones, USMCR, Retired, CreateSpace, 2017.

History of USS Tomich

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/t/tomich.html

http://www.navsource.org/archives/06/242.htm

History of USS Utah

https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship- histories/danfs/u/utah.html

http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/31a.htm

Tomich, Peter (Petar Herceg Tonic), CWT