Commander Thomas Calloway Latimore (28 June 1890 – July, 1941?) was an American naval officer who was captain of , and the governor of American Samoa. His disappearance in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

, just months before the 7 December 1941

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...

, remains an unsolved mystery.

Naval career

Thomas Latimore was born in Tennessee on June 28, 1890 and entered the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy ...

in 1910. He graduated and was commissioned an ensign in 1914. He was promoted to lieutenant (junior grade) in 1917. He served as acting Governor of American Samoa from April 10 to April 17, 1934. After a brief time at

Naval Intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...

in Washington, D.C., Latimore was given the command of the

destroyer tender A destroyer tender or destroyer depot ship is a type of depot ship: an auxiliary ship designed to provide maintenance support to a flotilla of destroyers or other small warships. The use of this class has faded from its peak in the first half of ...

in April 1941 at

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...

Disappearance

Soon after his arrival on

Oahu Oahu () ( Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over two-thirds of the population of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The island of O� ...

in April 1941, Latimore, who was described as a quiet, solitary man, began to enjoy hiking in the undeveloped Aiea Mountain Range that overlooked

(at ). Soon afterwards, a

Yeoman Yeoman is a noun originally referring either to one who owns and cultivates land or to the middle ranks of servants in an English royal or noble household. The term was first documented in mid-14th-century England. The 14th century also witn ...

Second Class, Kenneth Isaacs, who was assigned to ''Dobbin'', recalled that Latimore "came back to the ship, and he had an arm wound which he said he hurt in a fall. For a while he had an arm in a cast." By July 1941, the arm had healed and the cast had been removed. 51 year-old Latimore was last seen heading into the Aiea Mountains wearing his

khaki The color khaki (, ) is a light shade of tan with a slight yellowish tinge. Khaki has been used by many armies around the world for uniforms and equipment, particularly in arid or desert regions, where it provides camouflage relative to sandy ...

uniform, an old hat and a walking stick. When he failed to return, hundreds of sailors and local police scoured the Aiea Mountains looking for him. Trackers with dogs were brought in from

Schofield Barracks Schofield Barracks is a United States Army installation and census-designated place (CDP) located in the City and County of Honolulu and in the Wahiawa District of the Hawaiian island of Oahu, Hawaii. Schofield Barracks lies adjacent to the t ...

but no trace of Latimore was ever found. A Naval investigation into his disappearance was launched in 1941. His disappearance was never explained and was the subject of much local news coverage and rumor before being overshadowed by the Pearl Harbor attack. On 19 July 1942 he was officially declared dead.

U.S. Naval rumors

*Within the Navy, some initially believed he might have been abducted and killed by a local Hawaiian Japanese spy ring because he had either stumbled upon their activities in the hills or had been specifically targeted because of his Intelligence background. *Another popular naval conspiracy theory involved United States President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

, who some claim allowed the attack on Pearl Harbor to happen in order to galvanize the American public into war. Latimore supposedly had forewarning of the attack from his Naval Intelligence contacts and decided to disappear before the Japanese strike.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Latimore, Thomas C 1890 births 1941 deaths Year of death uncertain 1940s missing person cases 20th-century American naval officers Missing person cases in Hawaii Governors of American Samoa United States Navy officers United States Navy personnel of World War I

Naval career

Disappearance

U.S. Naval rumors

See also

References