Born on October 4, 1921, Thomas (Tom) J Schmidt was the youngest of two sons born to Dr. Frederick and Laura (Borisch) Schmidt of Eagle Wisconsin. Tom went to grade school in Eagle, and later graduated from Pio Nono High School in Milwaukee. He then attended Whitewater State Teachers College and the University of Wisconsin.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Tom wanted to do his part to help in the war effort. He left the university and joined the US Navy in June 1942, determined to become a pilot.
As a Naval cadet, he received Navy pre-flight training at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, and later received his wings at the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, Texas. Now a full Navy pilot, Tom was sent to Miami Florida for advanced training where he honed his skills as a fighter pilot with a Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless aircraft. His squadron was assigned to patrol, defend, and protect America’s east coast from enemy attack. Tom’s family was extremely proud of him.
The Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless aircraft was a 2-seat naval scout plane and dive bomber that became well known for bombing the Japanese carriers at the Battle of Midway in June 1942. Built with a powerful 1,200 horsepower engine, the SBD-5 could climb at 1,700 feet per second and reach speeds of over 250 mph. It was maneuverable, rugged, and deadly, with two 50 cal. machine guns on the front, two 30 cal. machine guns on the rear, and up to 2,250 lbs. of bombs in the belly.
In early November 1943, Tom’s parents received unconfirmed reports that their son had an accident and was lost at sea. Oh what terrible news if it was true! Weeks went by…
Finally on November 30, 1943, it was confirmed that Tom had been killed in an airplane crash on September 27, 1943. A letter from his commander said that Ensign Thomas J. Schmidt had been killed and lost at sea in the Atlantic near Charleston, R.I. A subsequent U. S. Navy Accident Report, #44-8818, dated September 27, 1943 revealed ;
“On the afternoon of September 27, 1943, Ensign Thomas James Schmidt, (age 21 or 22), was piloting an SBD-5 Dauntless aircraft, (Bu. No. 28658), taking part in a gunnery practice flight off Martha’s Vineyard. After making his fourth firing run at fixed water targets, he leveled off and made an emergency water landing. The aircraft sank within thirty seconds taking Ensign Schmidt with it. The gunner, ARM3c E. A. Hollomon, was able to escape, and was rescued by a Coast Guard Cutter and taken to Newport Naval Hospital in Rhode Island for treatment.
It was later determined that the synchronizing unit regulating the .50 caliber machine gun in the nose of the aircraft had malfunctioned, and that the propeller had been damaged to the point that the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing in the water.”
A full military memorial service was held for 21-year-old Ensign Schmidt with a solemn requiem high mass at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church on Dec. 7, 1943 and a memorial gravestone placed in the family plot at St. Theresa’s Oak Knoll Cemetery in Eagle. Ensign Thomas J. Schmidt’s name is also inscribed on the Navy’s East Coast Memorial in Manhattan, N.Y., and he is a posthumous member of the University of Wisconsin Gold Star Honor Roll, Class of 1943.
In 1949, the American Legion Post in Eagle was named “Sargent Splechter Schmidt Post #535 in honor of Eagle’s fallen heroes of WWII.
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