Posted by
MarkJ on Friday, December 07, 2007 7:03:08 PM
I don't have much in common with Thomas Hembree, other than we both grew up in the same town in eastern Washington State. His life was too short to accomplish much; in my 51 years I've graduated from college, raised two children, been married to the same woman for 26 years, and have had a satisfying career that is now in its declining years.
When I was 17 I was a junior in high school and attended the Washington State cross country championship meet, as an alternate, for my high school team. When he was 17, Thomas Hembree joined the US Navy. Since he was underage, he needed his mother's permission to enlist.
When I was 18 and a senior in high school, I ran the mile for the varsity track team and prepared for college. Thomas Hembree never saw his 18th birthday.
I studied forestry in college. I wonder what Thomas Hembree would have studied, had he been given the opportunity to continue his education. In fact, I don't even know if he graduated from high school. We'll never know what choices he would have made later in life.
After college I went to work (not in forestry, alas), married, and raised my family. Thomas Hembree never got that chance. I wonder if he ever had a girlfriend.
In the years since I've been working in the nuclear industry, I have had a small measure of professional success. I have been privileged enough to present three papers in my field at meetings of the American Nuclear Society. Thomas Hembree's career in the Navy was cut short, and he never rose above the rank of Apprentice Seaman.
In 1941, presumably after finishing his basic training, Apprentice Seaman Hembree was assigned to the USS Curtis, based in Pearl Harbor. Apparently he was homesick for Kennewick, WA. He wrote his mother a letter expressing that homesickness sometime during his first week in Hawaii.
On December 7, 1941, shortly before 8:00 a.m., the crew of the USS Curtis was called to General Quarters in response to a Japanese Navy bombing attack on the naval base. Approximately an hour into the attack a crippled Japanese plane crashed into one of the ship's cranes. This caused minimal damage, but shortly thereafter another Japanese plane succeeded in striking the Curtis with a bomb. This bomb caused severe damage and started an intense fire. 21 crewmen died, including 17 year old Thomas Hembree. His body was badly burned and positive identification was not possible at the time. He was buried in a grave marked "Unknown 7 December 1941", and he lay there unidentified until 2002. His body was exhumed and positively identified by the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory. Thomas Hembree was, in fact, the first unknown from the Pearl Harbor attack to be identified. A military funeral was held for him on March 5 at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu.
I cannot comprehend what Thomas Hembree's last hour of life was like. I am sure he was scared, but equally sure he did his duty to the best of his abilities. A homesick 17 year old boy dying to protect his country. Rest in peace, Tommy.