DOB/DOD: December 9, 1895 (Thomaston, CT) – December 7, 1941; 45 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Unmarried
ENLISTMENT: July 20, 1917
DISCHARGE AND SUBSEQUENT REENLISTMENT: Discharged on August 21, 1921, and on October 12, 1921, he reenlisted in the Navy, making it his career.
FAMILY: Born to William Reeves (1850-1938) and Mary O’Riley Reeves (1858-1939) [both born in Ireland]. Sister, Rosetta Reeves (1882-1905). Four brothers, Joseph (1885-1972), Leo (1889-1967), William (1892-1949), and Frederick (1898-1970).
MEDAL OF HONOR CITATION
AWARDED FOR ACTIONS DURING: World War II
BRANCH OF SERVICE: Navy
ASSIGNED TO: U.S.S. California (BB-44)
AGE ON THE DAY OF THE EVENT: 45
CITATION:
The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Radio Electrician Thomas James Reeves, United States Navy, for distinguished conduct in the line of his profession, extraordinary courage and disregard of his own safety during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, by Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. After the mechanized ammunition hoists were put out of action in the U.S.S. CALIFORNIA (BB-44), Radio Electrician Reeves, on his own initiative, in a burning passageway, assisted in the maintenance of an ammunition supply by hand to the anti-aircraft guns until he was overcome by smoke and fire, which resulted in his death.
Presentation Date and Details: In March 1942, the Medal of Honor was mailed to his brother’s home in Thomaston, Connecticut, by Secretary of the Navy William F. Knox.
From a U.S. Navy cruise book published in 1995 about the U.S.S. California
THOMAS JAMES REEVES, the son of Mr. and Mrs. William Reeves of Thomaston, Connecticut. He attended local schools and, before entering the service, was the chief operator for Western Union at Waterbury, CT. Thomas enlisted in the U.S. Navy on July 10, 1917. He saw service in WWI in the Transportation Service. In the following years, he had service on the U.S.S. American, Whipple, Seattle, Texas, Chicago, Maryland, New Mexico, and California. He also served in Staff Headquarters of the 3rd Naval District and with the Naval Mission to Brazil. He also taught radio in Rio de Janeiro. Thomas intended to retire in 1939 with more than 22 years of service completed. He had accepted an appointment as a ground engineer with the Civil Service. The day before his retirement was to take effect, President Roosevelt declared a Limited Emergency, and all persons were prohibited from leaving the Navy. Thomas then re-enlisted at San Pedro for another four years. At the time of Pearl Harbor, he was on the Admiral’s staff on board the U.S.S. California.
A remembrance letter written by Thomas Mason. Transposed from the original letter on display in the Town Hall in Thomaston, Connecticut
A remembrance of Chief Radioman Thomas J. Reeves, Medal of Honor
One day in the summer of 1941, Chief Reeves called me over to the supervisor’s desk in the radio room of the battleship California. We were moored to Berth F-3 at the head of the battle line in Pearl Harbor.
“Mason, I’m giving you a promotion,” he said. “I’m sending you to the main top for your battle station.”
“That’s great, Chief!” I enthused. “What do I do there?”
“When our planes are up, you copy their spotting reports,” he said. “By hand. They’re used for correcting main-battery fire.”
“What do I do when the planes aren’t up?”
“Enjoy the scenery.” He smiled. “You’re going to like it up there, Mason. Lots of fresh air.”
The chief — who ran the 90-man radio gang of both the ship and the admiral’s flag complement with an awesome competence — had given me more than a promotion. He had, it is quite likely, given me my life. Otherwise, I would have been in main radio, located on the platform deck below the third deck, port side, on December 7 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. After it flooded and was abandoned following the deadly impact of two torpedoes, I would have been with my best friend, Melvin G. Johnson, near the ship’s service store when a bomb hit there, killing him and about fifty other shipmates. Or — had I been a better man than I probably was — with Chief Reeves in a burning passageway on the third deck.
When main radio was abandoned, Chief Reeves was the last man out. After helping some men to relative safety, he returned to the burning, rapidly flooding the third deck. Realizing the desperate need for ammunition at the anti-aircraft batteries, he plunged into the smoke and flames with every able-bodied man he could muster. It was there on the starboard side of the third deck, less than fifty feet from the entrance to the radio room he had supervised so long and so ably that he was overcome by smoke and fire, collapsed, and died. He won the nation’s highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor. Of this medal, Harry Truman said: “I would rather have it than be President.”
The last time I saw the chief was on the late evening of December 5, 1941, in front of Wo Fat’s restaurant on Hotel Street in Honolulu.
“He was one of those men of above-medium height and large frame who become corpulent but never look fat,” I later wrote. “He had a round, smooth face under a full head of thick, iron-gray hair that gave him a leonine look despite the military haircut. His piercing, hawk-like eyes could have been those of a surgeon — or a riverboat gambler.
“Even then, he was a near-legendary figure. A pioneer during the primitive days of the arc transmitter, he was a man who scorned the easy shore billet that could have been his for one of the toughest jobs in the enlisted Navy: chief in charge of the radio gang, Commander Battle Force. He ran the C-D Division with a discipline that was firm without being oppressive… Reputedly, he had turned down a commission of at least two stripes, which was certainly understandable, for no junior officer in a battleship had anything like his real authority and prestige. The chief alone decoded when and where you stood watch, what your battle station was when you went on liberty, and when you were ready for a faster radio circuit or an advance in rating. Within his division, he was more feared and respected than the captain himself.”
On this Friday evening of December 5, Johnson and I were nearly broke. Spotting the chief, I ran across the street and explained my problem.
“Well, Mason,” he said without hesitation, “let me make you a small loan.” He pulled a bill from one of his pockets and handed it to me. “That enough?” he asked.
I was holding a twenty dollar bill — a third of a month’s pay for a third-class petty officer. I must have stammered in explaining that I didn’t need so much, that a five would be plenty.
“That’s all right, Mason,” he said with a wave of the hand and a flash from the large diamond ring he wore on his little finger. “Keep it.”
A Japanese task force prevented me from repaying that loan, but I never forgot the obligation. My assignment to the main top by Chief Radioman Thomas J. Reeves of Thomaston, Connecticut, enabled me to survive the attack on Pearl Harbor and later to attend college on the G.I. Bill. Decades later, it made possible the repayment of my debt in coin of a different kind. When I was asked by the Naval Institute Press to write Battleship Sailor, I was, at last, able to pay tribute to my gallant chief radioman of the California and to include his name in the book’s dedication.
“The battleship Navy was gone as an overwhelming physical force,” I wrote in my memoir, “but I knew that some of its intangible legacies would remain. What would live for others to emulate and for history to admire were the qualities of men like Reeves. To such men, defeat was unendurable, failure was not acceptable.”
I am proud to have known and served with Chief Radioman Thomas J. Reeves, Medal of Honor.
– Theodore C. Mason
WEBMASTER NOTE: Theodore Charles Mason survived the war and died in 2004 at 82 years old.
From The Hartford Courant July 12, 1942
Thomaston, July 11. – (AP) – Thomas Reeves is to have a United States Navy escort vessel named in his memory, according to a letter received today by his brother, Fred D. Reeves, from the Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox. Mr. Reeves, whose memory was honored at special ceremonies here on May 30 and who was posthumously awarded the Navy Medal of Honor, died December 7 in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was a Chief Radioman in the Navy.
The first Reeves was laid down by the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, on February 7, 1943; launched on April 23, 1943; sponsored by Miss Mary Anne Reeves, niece of Chief Radioman Reeves; and commissioned on June 9, 1943, Lieutenant Commander Mathias S. Clark in command.
Memorialized on his parent’s headstone. The stone is located in St. Thomas Cemetery, 55 Altair Avenue, Thomaston, Connecticut; Section B, Plot 283. Photo by Jeff DeWitt.
Chief Reeves was buried on January 28, 1949, in the National Military Cemetery of the Pacific, 2177 Puowaina Dr, Honolulu, Hawaii; Section A, Grave 884. Photo from FindAGrave.com.
END