THOMAS R. HINE, LT, USN

Thomas Hine '34

Date of birth: September 11, 1910

Date of death: November 13, 1942

Age: 32

Lucky Bag

From the 1934 Lucky Bag:

THOMAS RINGLE HINE

Saltsburg, Pennsylvania

"Tommy" "T. R." "Theo"

ACCORDING to well established precedent, this article should commence something like this: "Out from under the haze of the Smoky City, in the wilds of Western Pennsylvania, comes our Tommy." But that does not tell much about him.

First of all, he was determined to enter the Academy; he waited two years after passing the exams to get an appointment. Later, he displayed the same determination in the desire to stay with us Youngster Year. Then it was calculus that nearly got the better of him, but he pulled out from under and since then has been on top. But these Academic difficulties never caused him to become a member of the radiator club for he early joined the forces of Spike Webb. The resulting mania for boxing gets him over in MacDonough Hall on winter afternoons to box and like it.

Though quiet and taciturn, Tommy has a good natured disposition that becomes evident when one knows him. He will lend anything he has to anyone he knows. He will help any unsat classmate to the best of his ability without irritation. Being a Red Mike of the first order, he has let himself in for many a hop watch, but this is only another instance of his willingness to help.

It took Theo some time to get accustomed to the ways of the Navy, but, he has learned. His determination to fit himself for a Naval Officer led him into much grief and "running," but we now see our Tommy fit to take charge.

Boxing 4, 2, 1. 2 P.O.

THOMAS RINGLE HINE

Saltsburg, Pennsylvania

"Tommy" "T. R." "Theo"

ACCORDING to well established precedent, this article should commence something like this: "Out from under the haze of the Smoky City, in the wilds of Western Pennsylvania, comes our Tommy." But that does not tell much about him.

First of all, he was determined to enter the Academy; he waited two years after passing the exams to get an appointment. Later, he displayed the same determination in the desire to stay with us Youngster Year. Then it was calculus that nearly got the better of him, but he pulled out from under and since then has been on top. But these Academic difficulties never caused him to become a member of the radiator club for he early joined the forces of Spike Webb. The resulting mania for boxing gets him over in MacDonough Hall on winter afternoons to box and like it.

Though quiet and taciturn, Tommy has a good natured disposition that becomes evident when one knows him. He will lend anything he has to anyone he knows. He will help any unsat classmate to the best of his ability without irritation. Being a Red Mike of the first order, he has let himself in for many a hop watch, but this is only another instance of his willingness to help.

It took Theo some time to get accustomed to the ways of the Navy, but, he has learned. His determination to fit himself for a Naval Officer led him into much grief and "running," but we now see our Tommy fit to take charge.

Boxing 4, 2, 1. 2 P.O.

Loss

Thomas was lost when USS San Francisco (CA 38) was severely damaged during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on November 13, 1942.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Born in Canonsburg, Thomas graduated from Saltsburg High School in 1928. In the Christmas program entitled “One Christmas Eve,” he played the poor man, and his brother John played the page. In the senior class play “Flo’s Beau,” Thomas played Bill Jones. Thomas played the cello in the school orchestra, and his brother John played the violin.
In the yearbook, Thomas wrote a four-page summary of Saltsburg. In part, he wrote “The long list of our soldier dead who served in the earlier wars of our country and the still longer lists of those, many yet living, who went forth from Saltsburg during the later wars, reminds us that our little town serves her country well, both in peace and war.”
Congressman Strong of Brookville nominated Thomas as a third alternate to the Naval Academy in February, 1928. Thomas was nominated as principal in January, 1930, by the Hon. N. L. Strong, Representative of the 27th Congressional District of Pennsylvania.
Thomas’s letter to his parents was published in The Daily Notes, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, February 12, 1938:

This letter will be short as I do not have time to write. The Augusta is scheduled to leave for Manila tomorrow and I shall not be going along.
The Oahu brought the survivors and dead from the Panay yesterday afternoon and soon after midnight I received orders to relieve one of the officers of the Oahu today.
I am to be chief engineer and communication officer and I anticipate having my hands full. The Oahu is a sister ship of the Panay and I think I shall like her. She is small, 130 feet long and 25 feet wide, and displaces about 600 tons. There are five officers and about sixty men aboard.
The ship has two three-inch guns and ten machine guns, I’m also machine gun officer.
Our duty is to steam up and down the Yangtze river, to furnish protection if necessary to Americans in the various ports. There are five gunboats on the river since the Panay was sunk and they take turns patrolling various sections of the river, some times going up as far as 1,300 miles.

Thomas sailed on the S. S. President Pierce from Kobe, Japan, on September 14, 1939, to San Francisco.
A member of the Saltsburg Presbyterian Church, Thomas was survived by his father, a mining laborer, his mother, and two brothers. George was a private in the U. S. Army Coast Artillery, Caribbean area, and John was in the U. S. Army Air Corps, Kelly Field, San Antonio.

His father was listed as next of kin; he was also survived by his mother, Laura Belle; and brother, John. His memory marker is located in the Ridge View Cemetery, Pennsylvania.

Photographs

From his high school yearbook

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.