American Valor Quarterly Issue 4 - Autumn 2008 | Page 4

From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima
The World War II Experience of
Admiral Thomas H. Moorer
Thomas Hinman Moorer grew up in Eufaula,
Alabama, and graduated from the United States Naval
Academy in 1933. After completing aviation training
at Pensacola Naval Air Station in 1936, he flew with
fighter squadrons based on the USS Langley, the USS
Lexington, and the USS Enterprise. In late 1941, he
was flying PBY patrol bombers in the Pacific, and
was present when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
In fact, Admiral Moorer’s plane was one of the first
and only planes to launch on December 7.

National Archives

Moorer’s incredible story did not end there. In 1942,
his plane was shot down off the coast of Australia.
He was rescued shortly thereafter, only to be on board
when the rescue ship was attacked and sunk. Moorer
would earn the Distinguished Flying Cross three
months later when he braved enemy-controlled skies
to fly supplies into and evacuate the island of Timor.
He saw numerous assignments throughout the war,
which took him to Britain as well as Japan immediately
following the surrender.

Photo taken from a Japanese aircraft during the opening minutes on the attack on
Pearl Harbor. The explosion in the center is a torpedo attack on the USS West
Virginia situated along Battleship Row. Then-Lt. Thomas Moorer’s squadron was
based from Ford Island, dead center of the Japanese attack.

In the years following World War II, Moorer’s career
Just as the war was ending, Moorer would find himself assigned to a group tasked
continued to advance. He was promoted to vice
to find the reason why Japan decided to attack on December 7, 1941. During this
admiral in 1962, and took command of the Navy’s time, he got to know many of the senior Japanese commanders, including Captain
Seventh Fleet. In 1964 he was promoted to full
Mitsuo Fuchida, who directed the Japanese air assault on Pearl Harbor. Of him,
admiral and became commander in chief of the Moorer recalled, “Years later Fuchida visited me in Washington and I asked him what
Pacific Fleet. The following year he became the he was doing. He said that he had converted to Christianity and was traveling around
commander of NATO’s U.S. Atlantic Command and Japan to the schools to tell the students about Christianity. I told him that he better
not do that in the U.S. - the Supreme Court would find out and put him in jail!”
the U.S. Atlantic Fleet – the first naval officer to
command both the Pacific and Atlantic Fleets. He
was appointed Chief of Naval Operations by President Johnson When fighting broke out in Europe, the clouds of war grew
in 1967, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President thicker and thicker for us. We had been very isolationistic in the
Nixon nearly three years later. He retired from the Navy on July United States, and remained so even after the war broke out in
Europe. Mr. Roosevelt even made a statement to the effect that
2, 1974.
he would “not send one American to fight in a European war.”
Admiral Moorer was one of the earliest supporters of the World Yet at the same time, he was doing a little undercover work; we
War II Veterans Committee and the American Veterans Center, were covering British ships against the German submarines, and
and one of our best friends. For our first several year ̰