Thomas Wilson Hembree was a United States Navy sailor who was killed on the USS Curtiss (AV-4) when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. His remains were identified on November 5, 2001, making him the first Pearl Harbor unknown to be identified.
Biography[]
Thomas Hembree was born on May 17, 1924 in Kennewick, Washington. He was 17, he obtained his mother's permission to enlist in the United States Navy. His service number was 3860302. At the time of his death, he was a Seaman Apprentice on the USS Curtiss (AV-4).
Pearl Harbor Attack[]
At about 7:48 AM on December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service conducted a surprise military strike against the United States at the naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
At 9:05 AM, a crippled Japanese dive-bomber crashed into USS Curtiss. Shortly after, a bomb from another Japanese dive-bomber which started a large fire aboard the seaplane tender. Thomas was among the nine men killed in a single compartment hit by the bomb explosion.
Overall, 2,335 Americans were killed in the attack; 21 sailors on the Curtiss. The surprise attack led US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to declare December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy." The following day, the United States Congress declared war on Japan, which led to the United States' formal entry into World War II.
Aftermath[]
After the attack, the remains of the nine men in the compartment were taken ashore for identification. Of the nine, only Thomas and Wilson Rice could not be identified. The remains of unknown servicemen that were discovered following the attack were buried at the Halawa Naval Cemetery in Honolulu on December 9, 1941. In 1949, they were reburied at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, AKA the "Punchbowl," in Honoluli, Hawaii.
On December 28, the USS Curtiss departed Pearl Harbor and arrived in San Diego, California. Repairs were completed four days later and she returned to Pearl Harbor on January 13, 1942.
Thomas posthumously awarded the Purple Heart. He was memorialized at Court 3 of the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial in Honolulu and at the Cedar Gap Cemetery in Stockton, Missouri.
Identification[]
In 2001, Ray Emory, a survivor of Pearl Harbor and national historian for the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association who pushed to identify the unknown Pearl Harbor remains, suggested a set of remains buried in Grave C-258 was the remains of Thomas or Wilson Rice.
The unknown remains were exhumed by scientists at the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii. Using dental records and skeletal analysis, the remains were identified as Thomas Hembree November 5, 2001. On March 5, 2002, he was buried in the same plot with a new gravestone and full military honors. There were 17 family members present at the ceremony.