Withers
Thomas Withers, Jr.
In 1902 he received an appointment to the Naval Academy from the state of Colorado and it was reported in the newspapers of the time that he and other appointees had passed their "mental exams", meaning the written testing for acceptance to the Academy for the class of 1906.
His U.S. Naval Academy number is 02847. He entered the Academy in 1902, and graduated on Feb 12, 1906. The class had 116 graduates and 42 non-graduates. After graduation he reported to the USS Alabama (Battleship No. 8) for duty.
May 6, 1910 the U.S. Census shows him at the Mare Island Navy Yard aboard the armored cruiser California (ACR-6). He is 23 years old and a Naval Officer. The next year he was commissioned a lieutenant on July 1, 1911.
On January 5, 1912 the now Lieutenant Thomas Withers, Jr, was detached from duty on the California, to duty on the the stores ship Glacier (AF-4), as the Executive Officer.
On June 4, 1912 Withers received orders transferring him from the Glacier, to the armored cruiser Colorado (ACR-7). He was only aboard for a little over a month when, again, he was in receipt of orders on August 17, 1912. He was ordered from the Colorado and assigned to the Office of Naval Intelligence.
Just shy of two years later on March, 15 1914, Withers had orders in hand detaching him from the Office of Naval Intelligence, and assigning him to take command of the submarine, USS E-1 (SS-24), on April 14, 1914, his first command.
In the Navy Officer Corps, officers are expected to engage in social events and to plan them. On July 30, 1914, in Newport, RI, Withers was attending a luncheon given by Captain and Mrs. Roger Welles. The attendees were probably the officers and wives under his command.
Thomas Withers married Lorena LaBar from Scranton, Pennsylvania on November 25, 1914.
LT Withers and his bride Lorena had honeymooned in Asheville, North Carolina at the magnificent, stone faced, red tile roofed, Grove Park Inn and had left to return to Norfolk, VA. to continue his duties on December 20, 1914.
Withers was in command of the E-1 when she was ordered from Key West to New York for the 1915 Presidential Review on the Hudson River. A trip of 1230 miles, all on her own power. Whereas the other submarines traveling with her had to avail themselves of port calls to repair equipment and/or be taken in tow. The E-l was the only submersible that made the voyage without assistance from the convoying vessel and made the entire run without a stop. He and his crew received some acclaim from this feat and had their photos in the New York Times. At the time it was the longest sea voyage undertaken by a U.S. submarine. The previous record for a U.S. submarine cruising under her own power was a run from Key West to Galveston, a distance of 830 miles.
On July 12, 1915, Lieutenant Thomas Withers was in receipt of temporary orders transferring him from command E-1 to the Baltimore (CM-1), a protected cruiser converted into a minelayer and launched in 1888. On July 30, 1915 he was admitted for treatment to the Naval Hospital New York, NY. for an undisclosed illness.
On October 31, 1915 Withers was transferred from the Baltimore to the Tennessee (ACR-10) an armored cruiser which was renamed Memphis on May 25, 1916 to free the name for another ship. The Memphis was caught by a sudden ground swell and hurled upon the rocks on August 30, 1916 while anchored in Santo Domingo Harbor.
The gunboat Castine (PG-6) was also caught in the swell, but escaped by putting out to sea. More than twenty of the crew of the Memphis were drowned. The Memphis was under the command of Captain Edward L. Beach, Sr. Withers was the Navigation Officer and had recommended moving the ship when the storm began but the waves were became so high so quickly that the fires were put out by waves breaking over the smokestack and the ship was driven ashore and wrecked.
In 1915 Wither's brother Noble graduated from the Naval Academy. He had entered the Academy, from Nevada, in 1911. Another brother, Cleeman, was appointed to Annapolis from Kansas in 1914. A sister of the three Withers brothers was the wife of Army officer, 1st LT Edward E. McCammon, 3rd U.S. Infantry.
The 1920 census shows he and his wife Lorena and daughter Helen are living in Annapolis, MD. and he is stationed at the U.S. Naval Academy. After leaving the Academy in 1920 he reported aboard the destroyer Belknap (DD-251) as her Commanding Officer.
By May 19, 1922, now Commander Thomas Withers is in command of Submarine Division FIVE, and carried the collateral duty as CO of the USS Eagle No. 17], a patrol craft pressed into service as a submarine tender for the division. Proceeding from Norfolk to New London in charge of four submarines, she became separated from her charges due to thick weather during the night and piled up on the beach near Amagansett, Long Island, losing her propeller and opening up her seams. The crew on board incluided three officers and sixty-one men of which forty-two were members of the ship's crew, the others being extra submarine crew members traveling to New London as passengers. At least that is how it was reported in the newspapers. Below is how it really happened.
Rain squalls and thick weather, accompanied by a driving gale, overtook the little group of ships, and Commander Withers lost sight of his submarines. Unable to pick up any shore lights and not knowing his position, he decided to anchor until the weather cleared. The ship dropped anchor in eighteen fathoms of water. There was a heavy sea running and the wind rose continually.
Anchor watch was stationed and soundings were made on a regular basis. These showed that the water depths were decreasing and Withers, fearing the tender was being driven ashore by the seas, got under way again. By this time it was too late, the propeller was on the bottom and the propeller shaft was twisted off, leaving the vessel at the mercy of the wind, which soon beached her at Amagansett.
Here we loose track of him for a bit but on June 23, 1928 we find that he had had a tour of duty on the staff at the Naval War Collage and it ended on this date. The 1930 U.S. Census has them living in Newport, Rhode Island and he is a Commander by this time.
By January 23, 1931 he was Chief of Staff for the Commander of the Submarine Force. Previous to that he had been an Inspector of Ordinance in charge at the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport, RI. In June of 1932 he travels to Honolulu aboard the civilian steamship SS Malolo.
July 21, 1934, now a Captain, Withers was Commandant at Submarine Base New London, and welcomed President Franklin Roosevelt to the base when the Presidential Yacht Sequoia moored there to attend the Yale-Harvard boat races on the Thames River the next day. Roosevelt was to then travel by car to his mothers home, Hyde Park and then on to the West Indies.
August 11, 1934 Withers is mentioned as being on various social committees for the communities in the Long Island area. August 24, 1934 Withers and wife were actively engaged in the social life of New London. On August 24, 1934 they were guests of a Mrs. Emily B. Swindell who threw a dinner party who included a number of names familiar in the submarine world. The guests included Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Y. Spear (President of the Electric Boat Company), and CAPT and Mrs. Isaac I. Yates.
On August 5, 1936 the marriage their daughter, Helen Withers and Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Howard Fletcher Stoner in New London. CT., was announced and was attended by COL and Mrs. Edward B. McCammon, who was Thomas Wither's sister.
On January 2, 1937 the wife of Captain Thomas Withers, Mrs. Lorena LaBar Withers, died at Submarine Base New London, probably at the base hospital. She was buried on Jan 5, 1937 in Scranton, PA.
After his tour as Commandant at the Sub Base he received orders to take command of the battleship Colorado (BB-45).
On June 1, 1939 he was promoted to the temporary rank of Rear Admiral. The rank was made permanent on December 1, 1940.
In the 1940 census he was living alone in Newport, Rhode Island with two African-American servants; Pattie Purdy, age 56, his housekeeper, and Lillian Dixon, age 31, who is listed as being married and is a maid for the household.
In January 1941 he and new wife Helen S. Withers travel to Honolulu aboard the civilian steamship SS Lurline. On December 7, 1941 Admiral Thomas Withers, Jr., was Commander Submarines Pacific at Pearl Harbor, he had relieved Admiral Wilhelm L. Friedell earlier that fall. He was succeeded by Rear Admiral Robert H. English, in May of 1942 who served until January 20, 1943 when he was killed in an aircraft accident.
Withers now became the Commandant of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard at Kittery, Maine.
March 10, 1943 Helen S. Withers christened the USS Apogon (SS-308) at the Portsmouth Navy Yard where her husband was the yard Commandant. On November 22, 1943 Withers presented Commander Lawson P. Ramage with the Navy Cross for directing hazardous operations "against a dangerous and desperate enemy" as the former commanding officer of the submarine USS Trout (SS-202).
On June 1, 1946 Withers retired as a Rear Admiral. He was 60 years old. He passed away on June 25, 1953 in Coronado, CA. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery Plot: Sec: 10, Site: 10700-A-B
An interesting side note, printed in a 1960 newspaper, cites "an official Navy record", in which is carried an account by RADM Thomas Withers, commander of submarine forces of the Pacific. He described how Pat Mignone, of the submarine Tautog (SS-199), shot down the first Japanese airplane during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Mignone just said, "I just went down and got a machine gun and went to work. I know I got one myself. I didn't hear anyone else shooting when I hit it. Later I think I knocked down two more, but by then the two destroyers had started shooting." Mignone fired more than 1,800 rounds through his M2 .50 caliber machine gun while perched on the cigarette deck aft of the bridge.
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