Peter Tomich

Infobox Military Person
name=Petar Tomić
born= birth date|1893|6|3
died= Death date and age|1941|12|7|1893|6|3
placeofbirth=Prolog, Austria-Hungary
placeofdeath=KIA at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
placeofburial=


caption=Chief Watertender Petar Tomić
nickname=
allegiance= United States of America
branch= United States Army United States Navy
serviceyears=during World War I (Army) 1919 – 1941 (Navy)
rank=Chief Watertender (Navy)
commands=
unit=USS "Litchfield" (DD-336) USS "Utah" (AG-16)
battles=Attack on Pearl Harbor
awards=Medal of Honor
laterwork=

Petar Tomić (Anglicized as Peter Tomich) (June 3 1893 – December 7 1941) was a United States Navy sailor who received the United States military's highest award, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in World War II.

Tomić was an ethnic Croat born in Prolog near Ljubuški, Austria-Hungary, in what later became Bosnia and Herzegovina. During World War I he served in the U.S. Army. After enlisting in the U.S. Navy in January 1919, he initially served in the destroyer "Litchfield" (DD-336).

By 1941, he had become a Chief Watertender on board the training and target ship "Utah" (AG-16). On December 7, 1941, while the ship lay in Pearl Harbor, moored off Ford Island, she was torpedoed during Japan's raid on Pearl Harbor. Tomić 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. His Medal of Honor was on display at the Navy's Senior Enlisted Academy (Tomich Hall) until it was posthumously awarded to members of his family on 18 May 2006, aboard the USS "Enterprise" in the Adriatic Sea, off the coast of Croatia.

Namesake

The destroyer escort USS "Tomich" (DE-242), 1943–1974, was named in honor of Chief Watertender Tomić.