Kirkpatrick, Thomas Leroy, CAPT

This Military Service Page was created by Felix Cervantes, III (Admiral Ese), BM2

On the fateful morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941, Chaplain Kirkpatrick was nearing the end of his Navy career and was reportedly in the wardroom of ARIZONA with some of his fellow officers enjoying a cup of coffee when the Japanese attack commenced against the fleet moored in Pearl Harbor.  Presumably, when general quarters sounded with the announcement, "THIS IS NOT A DRILL," he rushed to his battle station on the same deck in the nearby sickbay to minister to any casualties.  Within minutes after the attack began the last Japanese bomb to fall on ARIZONA likely penetrated the armored deck near the ammunition magazines located in the forward section of the ship.  While not enough of the ship is still intact to judge the exact location, its effects are indisputable.  About seven seconds after the bomb hit, the forward magazines detonated in a cataclysmic explosion, mostly venting through the sides of the ship and destroying much of the interior structure of the forward part of the ship.  In an instant Chaplain Kirkpatrick, along with 1,176 other crewmembers, was killed of the 1,512 crewmen on board at the time.  On December 5, 1941, Chaplain Kirkpatrick prophetically wrote to his friend and fellow chaplain aboard USS NORTH CAROLINA, "This is a tense week with us out here, and before you get this it will be decided one way or another, doubtless."
 
In his honor the USS KIRKPATRICK (DE-318/DER-318) was commissioned in October 1943 and served until decommissioned in June 1960.  CAPT Kirkpatrick became the first Navy Chaplain to be killed during World War II and lies forever entombed in the remains of ARIZONA on the bottom of Pearl Harbor.  During exploration of the sunken battleship the desk clock from Chaplain Kirkpatrick's quarters was recovered and presented to his family.  In 1996 his son donated the clock for permanent display at the Arizona Memorial Museum in Honolulu.  The clock is pretty much intact except for the face and will forever tell the time at which it stopped - 8:04:35.

[Excert from a tribute written by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)]
 

NOTE: While some documents and other sources have CAPT Kirkpatrick's middle name as "Larcey" most of the official documents - promotion records, WWI draft card, etc. - has it as "Leroy". Since he is the person who filled out the draft information and all the other information indicates it is him, I've chosen to list "Leroy" as his middle name.
 
The information contained in this profile was compiled from various internet sources.
 
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Chaplain Thomas LeRoy Kirkpatrick was on the stern of the U.S.S. Arizona the morning of Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, preparing for that day’s service when a bomb hit the nearby number four turret.
 
It was the beginning of the Japanese attack that killed Capt. Kirkpatrick and 1,176 other sailors and Marines on the battleship.
 
At the onset of the 07 December 1941 attack, the battleship USS Arizona (BB-39) was moored at berth Fox 7 on “Battleship Row.” The repair ship Vestal (AR-4) was on the port side; and the starboard side faced the northeastern shore of Ford Island. Just before 8 am, the ship’s air raid alarm sounded and the crew was ordered to general quarters. During the attack the battleship was struck by as many as eight aerial bombs, including one 1,700 lb. armor-piercing shell which penetrated the deck near the Number 2 turret and detonated in the smokeless powder magazine, causing a “cataclysmic” explosion “which destroyed the ship forward” and ignited a fire which burned for two days. Most of the Arizona crewmen who perished in the attack died instantly during the explosion. The ship quickly sank to the bottom of the harbor along with 1,177 of the 1,512 personnel on board, representing about half the total number of Americans killed that day.
 
“He died serving God and country,” one of the few Arizona survivors, Thomas Stanborough, wrote to Mr. Kirkpatrick’s widow, Genevieve.
 
Mr. Kirkpatrick was born July 5, 1887, in Cozad, Nebraska, to Newton Kirkpatrick, a teacher and carpenter, and Jennie Delk Kirkpatrick, a homemaker. The family moved to Colorado a few years later and he graduated from Colorado Springs High School in 1905. He was active in the Young Men’s Christian Association at Colorado College and graduated in 1911. He was also assistant editor of the school newspaper, and a member of Alpha Tau Delta fraternity and the glee club.
 
He became a missionary in Persia, serving for several years in Tabriz, before returning to the United States and attending McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. He was ordained by the Presbyterian church in 1918, the same year he joined the Navy and graduated from chaplain school.
 
He served in France during World War I-- the first of many overseas and domestic assignments. His last posting was to the Arizona in August 1940. He served as fleet chaplain, ministering to men on the Arizona, Pennsylvania and Nevada.
 
He was survived by his widow and a son, Thomas I. Kirkpatrick. Captain Kirkpatrick is memorialized at the USS Arizona Memorial as well as in the Courts of the Missing of the Honolulu Memorial. 
 
A destroyer escort was named in his honor in 1943.
 
Sources: the Honolulu Star-Bulletin; the Lincoln (Nebraska) Star; Presbyterians of the Past web site; Census; “The Love That Endures, Remembering my Mother and my Father, U.S.S. Arizona’s Chaplain at Pearl Harbor,” written by their son, Thomas I. Kirkpatrick. 
https://pearlharbor.org/facts-uss-arizona-bb-39/
http://www.ibiblio.org/phha/arizona/history.html#pearlharbor
 
This information was researched and written on behalf of the USS Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.