Thomas James Cahill was born May 31, 1920 to John Bernard and Catherine Ellen Baldwin Cahill. He died Apr. 12, 1945 and is memorialized at the Courts of the Missing, Court 5, Honolulu Memorial, Honolulu, Hawaii and has a cenotaph in Saint Johns Catholic Cemetery, Emmetsburg, IA.
Petty Officer Cahill served in World War II with the U.S Navy aboard the Mannert L. Abele (DD-733) and was MIA/FOD/KIA as the result of enemy action (Japanese Kamikaze Aircraft). He was awarded the Purple Heart.
Sources: ancestry.com; and the book,
“Three Minutes off Okinawa: The Sinking of the Radar Picket Destroyer, the U. S. S. Mannert L. Abele, by Japanese Kamikaze Aircraft” written by Roy S. Anderson, a survivor of the Mannert L. Abele sinking.
