Page 97 - Lubbock Senior Link Magazine Fall 2019- Online Magazine

world war ii
they were the most heavily armed boats pound Alvernia High School in
for pound with “four torpedoes, two depth Pittsburgh. He took her to Navy
charges, the Prom, and they were
two 20 mm married in 1948. Tom
guns, two 50 became a Certified Public
caliber guns, Accountant after passing the CPA exam and
and a very spent his career in business.
powerful
two-man 40 What brought Tom to Texas from Pittsburgh?
mm gun.” While he returned to Pittsburgh after the war,
he got physically sick every September knowing
How that winter was coming. He decided to get out as
dangerous soon as he could. In 1960, he decided he would
was it on move to either California or Texas, choosing to
a PT Boat? take the first job offered, which turned out to be
On the first night patrol out of New Guinea, a Controller position with Maderis Company, a
near New Britain, a shell fired from a Japanese Philco distributor in Dallas.
shore battery missed Tom by about nine inches.
Fortunately, PT 127 never sustained much Tom and Joan raised five children (two others
damage during all of its missions. died at birth). Joan passed away in 2017.
The PT Boats mostly targeted Japanese barges. Tom concluded his recollections by saying “That
The exception was when the Japanese decided was a long time ago. I never thought I would live
to take back Leyte Gulf. Among all 30 PT Boats, to eventually be 96 years old!”
Squadron 7 was selected to be out front, with
PT 127 as the very first boat. Their mission
was to spot the enemy, report back courses,
numbers, and types of boats, rather than
engaging the fleet of large Japanese ships.

Tom finished his PT Boat tour in March 1945.
He came home to Pittsburgh on a 30-day
leave. He was on the ship headed back to the
Philippines in August 1945 when the atomic
bombs were dropped, and Japan surrendered.
His ship continued on to Manila. He was
promoted to First Class and then assigned to
the attack cargo ship USS Yancey AKA-93 from
September to December 1945.
Tom received two awards: 1) World War II
Victory Medal, American Campaign, Navy
Unit citation, Asiatic-Pacific with three stars,
and 2) Philippine Liberation with three stars,
plus a good conduct medal. Each of the stars
represented a major battle that involved the
boat Tom was on.
After the war, Tom returned to Pittsburgh and
enrolled at Robert Morris Accounting College.
He was able to work half time with a pretty
flexible schedule as his mom was sick, and he
needed to support her and his sisters. Tom
met Joan in 1946. She was a senior at Mount

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