TOWNSEND-THOMAS

KILLED  IN  ACTION -  SOLOMON ISLANDS – 8/24/1942

Thomas Robert Townsend was reportedly born during February 1918 in Onondaga County, New York.  Readily available historical records reveal he joined the Navy on November 19, 1940, at Albany, New York, and following recruit training in San Diego was assigned to the carrier USS Saratoga on May 6, 1941.  Sometime later he was assigned to Torpedo Squadron Three as on August 24, 1942, then Aviation Ordinance Man Second Class Townsend departed the carrier USS Enterprise as a crewmember of a TBF-1 Avenger torpedo bomber to conduct a search mission near the Solomon Islands.  There were two aircraft conducting the search and during the flight they sighted the Japanese heavy cruiser IJN Tone.  After radioing their sighting, the two planes commenced an attack on the Tone but were quickly attacked themselves by three Japanese Zero fighters.  During the engagement both American planes were shot down and unfortunately AOM2 Townsend and his pilot were killed.  Historical records report that a third crewmember survived the ditching, floated alone in a raft for 15-days until he landed on a small island of the Carteret Islands where he remained with friendly natives for nearly eight months until rescued on April 11, 1943, by a Navy PBY Catalina aircraft.  As the remains of AOM2 Townsend were not recoverable, his name is inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)