Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1927 Lucky Bag:

Thomas Olin Oberrender

Dutch Tom

DUTCH comes from one of those places in Pennsylvania surrounded by green mountains and Nature at her best ; a place where one would expect one of his natural characteristics to come from. He received his education from Bellefonte Academy and it was fresh from there that he entered the Naval Academy.

He hails from the land of hard and level-headed men. What he says you can bank on to be sound and good advice. He is athletic by nature, but due to a hurt knee is not able to join sports. This has made him a charter member of the famous Radiator Club and winter sport association.

Two years a Red Mike at the Academy, but watch his speed on leaves. Then the bushy eyebrows take their numerous toll of the fair sex.

Dutch is hard-working, hard-loving, hard-playing, but let us not say hard-studying. He has little trouble with the academics, but yet he is not exactly a savoir. No, he is not a super-man, but just a jolly good fellow, and the life of any party regardless of the kind or nature it may be. Always ready to lend a helping hand and seldom “rhino,” although we know he is trying to be an aviator we know he will be a real friend and a shipmate to be desired.

Loss

Thomas was lost when USS Juneau (CL 52) was sunk at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on November 13, 1942.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Thomas was at his battle station below decks when he was wounded following a Japanese hit on the Juneau. After making emergency repairs, he had the doctor treat and sew his wounds. He returned to his station, and a short time later, the Juneau was sunk.

Per the Standard-Speaker, Hazleton, Pennsylvania, February 12, 1943: He took part in the Nicaragua Campaign and won a medal for outstanding service. In 1929, he was ordered to China to join the Asiatic Fleet and soon after his ship took an active part in the Yangtze River Campaign. He was awarded the Yangtze Campaign Medal.

He married Muriel Eleanor Colthurst on July 13, 1932, in Long Beach, California.

The USS Oberrender, Destroyer Escort 344, was named for Thomas. She was commissioned on May 11, 1944.

His father Thomas was in charge of the DuBois plant of the Freeland Overall Company. The family left Freeland to locate at DuBois. His mother was Hellen. His brother Graaf was born in 1897 and died in 1950.

From DuBois Area high school yearbook, 1946:

LT. COMMANDER THOMAS OLIN OBERRENDER
Lt. Cmdr. Oberrender was graduated by the U. S. Naval Academy in 1927 as an Ensign. From his graduation until he took command of the USS Juneau in October, 1941, he served us an instructor at Annapolis, an Naval inspector, and in various capacities at sea on many different ships. As commander of the USS Juneau, he had the five Sullivan brothers on board.

The USS Juneau participated in the battle of Gundalcanal and wan sunk in the battle of the Solomon Islands, on November 13, 1948. Commander Oberrender went down with his ship. The previous day he was wounded when trying to save some of his men when the Juneau had been torpedoed on that day for the first time. In addition to the Purple Heart he received for these wounds, some of his other awards are the Second Nicaraguan Campaign Medal, Yantze Service Medal, American Defense and Fleet Clasp Medal, and the Asiatic-Pacific ribbon.

Had Commander Oberrender survived, he would have been one of the youngest Captains in the regular Navy today. The USS Oberrender, (DE 344) was named in his honor.

His wife was listed as next of kin. Thomas has a memory marker in California.

Photographs

Source

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.