Chief Watertender Peter Tomich, U.S.N.

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 was named in his honor.

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 USS Utah, until he saw that all boilers were secured and all fireroom personnel had left their stations, and by so doing lost his life.

Chief Watertender Peter Tomich's Medal of Honor.