Navy awards two posthumous medals for Peal Harbor
The Navy writes to tell us that the Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer has awarded medals to Chaplain Lt. j.g. Aloysious H. Schmitt and Chief Boatswain’s Mate Joseph L. George for their actions during the Japanese attack on US Naval forces on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i.
Navy Chief of Chaplains Rear Adm. Margaret Kibben will present the Silver Star Medal to a member of Schmitt’s family during a ceremony on the campus of Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa on Dec. 7. The 8:45 a.m. (Central time) presentation ceremony will be preceded by a special Catholic mass in a campus chapel previously dedicated to Schmitt, and in which his remains are interred.
The Bronze Star Medal will be presented by Rear Adm. Matthew J. Carter deputy commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, to George’s daughter, Joe Ann Taylor, on Dec. 7 during a 4:30 p.m. (Hawaii-Aleutian time) ceremony at the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor.
“The presentation of the medals is not only appropriate but simply the right thing to do,” said Spencer. “One of my highest priorities is to honor the service and sacrifice of our Sailors, Marines, Civilians, and family members and it is clear that Lt. Schmitt and Chief George are heroes whose service and sacrifice will stand as an example for current and future service members.”
In October 1942 Schmitt was posthumously awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, the Navy’s award for non-combat heroism. The Navy later published a clearer definition of combat for award purposes, making. Schmitt was retroactively eligible for the Silver Star Medal, the military’s third-highest personal decoration for valor in combat. Schmitt’s family petitioned the Navy to upgrade his recognition to a combat valor award.
Similarly, in 1942 George was officially commended by his commanding officer following the attack, but he was not awarded any medal. Lauren Bruner and Don Stratton, two of the USS Arizona Sailors saved by George’s actions, petitioned for him to be presented a medal.
Stars & Stripes reported that Chaplain Schmitt’s earthly remains were identified last year.
The battleship, which had a complement of about 1,300, quickly rolled over in 50 feet of water, trapping hundreds of men below decks.
Thirty-two were saved by rescue crews who heard them banging for help, cut into the hull and made their way through a maze of darkened, flooded compartments to reach them.
Others managed to escape by swimming underwater to find their way out. Some trapped sailors tried to stem the rushing water with rags and even the board from a game. One distraught man tried to drown himself.
A few managed to escape through portholes – saved by brave comrades such as Father Schmitt, who is said to have helped as many as 12 sailors get out of a small compartment.
He was posthumously given the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism.
The medal citation states that after helping several shipmates to safety, he got stuck in the porthole as other sailors tried to pull him through.
“Realizing that other men had come into the compartment looking for a way out, Chaplain Schmitt insisted that he be pushed back into the ship so that they might escape,” the citation says.
CBS News tells the story of Chief George;
Donald Stratton and Lauren Bruner survived the inferno, and then beat the actuarial tables to live well into their nineties. They came to Washington to win recognition for the sailor who saved them that day.
“We got out on the deck, on the hot steel deck, and he throwed us a heaving line,” said Stratton.
The sailor was on the repair ship USS Vestal tied up next to the Arizona. Stratton, Bruner and four other men were trapped on that platform, badly burned and about to be roasted alive.
“After about three or four throws, he finally got the line over to us,” Stratton recalled. “We pulled it across and tied it off on the Arizona, and we went hand-over-hand across the line to the Vestal, about 70 or 80 feet. He was probably the only guy that could have got that line to us.”
For years, neither man knew who that sailor was. But now they do. He was a 26-year-old Boatswain’s Mate named Joe George.
Before he died, George did an interview with University of North Texas for an oral history of the “day of infamy.” It is the only record that exists of him telling his own story.
From the Navy press release;
After securing the line as best he could, George returned to fighting fires and controlling damage aboard Vestal. When it became apparent Arizona was doomed, George assisted with getting Vestal underway and away from the burning and fast-sinking battleship. Arizona lost 1,177 crewmembers during the attack. Vestal lost seven.
George went on to serve throughout the war and retired in 1955 as a chief petty officer after twenty years in the Navy.
According to George’s daughter, he was brought back to the ship by military policemen for fighting downtown on Saturday night and that’s why he was on the ship that fateful Sunday morning.
Category: We Remember
Heroes both of them! Good on the Navy for recognizing them, even if it was delayed several decades.
Sounds like well deserved commendations.
I would wager that there was a lot of unsung heroism that day.
Trust a Bosun’s Mate to get into a fight and then do something right.
Kudos, and well-deserved, gentlemen.
USS Vestal, an oft-forgotten ship of heroes.
Someone else said it better than I, “Where do we get such men?”
James Michener, “The Bridges at Toko-Ri.” Said by RADM Tarrant After he is notified that LT Brubaker was KIA after hitting the titular bridges. Tarrant’s backstory involved losing one of his sons, an F4F pilot, at NAS Kaneohe Bay on December 7. The other son, an SBD pilot, died trying to put his bombs into a Japanese carrier at Midway. It’s also mentioned that the loss of their boys caused Mrs. Tarrant to suffer a mental breakdown, and that she had spent her days since then knitting a baby blanket for the grandchildren they would never have, and that as of 1951 it was nearly twenty feet long.
Great book, but be prepared to cry if you read it.
Thank you TOW.
Sorry to ask a question about Navy attire. The ‘tie’ that Chief Boatswain’s Mate Joseph L. George is wearing under his collar, is it still used or was it done away with?
Thank you and please know I mean no disrespect to Chief Boatswain’s Mate Joseph L. George, his heroism or his memory
The neckerchief? Still worn by E-6 and below with Dress Blues and Dress Whites.
Learning to roll it right (with a nickle or a quarter in the middle) and then tying it in the correct not is something I have not forgotten how to do in 32 years.
**knot**
Anyone out there familiar with doing an unauthorized double roll neckerchief. Great looking when going on the beach (liberty) but not for inspections.
Seen it, but never saw how it was done. Last seen on a ABH2 buddy at a NDB along with his magnificent liberty cuffs in 2007 or so :-).
Yes…it was always UNDER the collar, look a little dumb over the collar and covering up the piping!
BZ shipmates…especially the Padre. My God….to ask to be pushed back in to allow others to live. How do we know how we will act when put in a similar situation?
“How do we know how we will act when put in a similar situation?”
That there, is the million dollar question … and it seems we never know until the moment it’s in our face, for real.
Like Desmond Doss, the Padre had his priority ducks in line.
His reward in Heaven is better deserved than most.
“No greater love than a man lay down his life for a friend”
Ranger that!
Go Big Blue! Anchor’s Away!
About time.
Rest well, men.
Thank you.
Damn, it’s dusty here all of a sudden. Damned allergies.