Thomas Franklin Sweeney
Sergeant Major Thomas F. Sweeney served with Service Company, 4th Marines.
He was killed in action at Corregidor on 6 May 1942.
Branch
Marine Corps Regular
Service Number 208378
Current Status
Remains not recovered.
Pursuit Category
This case is under Active Pursuit by the DPAA.
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
January 22, 1905
at Rockford, IL
Parents
Michael Daniel Sweeney
Margaret Mae (Walsh) Sweeney
Education
Details unknown
Occupation & Employer
Professional Marine
Service Life
Entered Service
December 20, 1926
at San Francisco, CA
Home Of Record
3182 Bradman Drive
San Diego, CA
Next Of Kin
Wife, Mrs. Lois Macel Sweeney
Military Specialty
Sergeant Major
Primary Unit
Service Co. / 4th Marines
Campaigns Served
Philippine Islands / Corregidor
Individual Decorations
Silver Star
Purple Heart
Additional Service Details
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Loss And Burial
Circumstances Of Loss
Thomas Sweeney, a true “old salt” regular Marine, was a veteran of service dating back to 1926 – multiple tours in China, sea duty aboard a capital ship, mess details at barracks across the southern United States, and even a guard for the United States Mail. On 1 July 1941, he joined Service Company, 4th Marines as its first sergeant, and would stay on their muster rolls for the rest of his life.
Sweeney was promoted to Sergeant Major on 16 January 1942, and participated in the defense of the Philippines and the siege of Corregidor. Although more than aware of the dire situation facing his men, Sweeney always tried to keep spirits up. First Sergeant Frank Skwiralski recalled a typical morning greeting:
Sweeney was our battalion sergeant major. Early on, in Government Ravine, he’d come down the trail and announce, “Men, we have black coffee, biscuits and gravy, and Spam the thickness of a deck of cards.”
How good that all sounded. We were on two meals a day. Breakfast at daybreak and supper after dark. No lights. No fires. We couldn’t show lights on shore or the Japanese would open fire on the flame or beam of light.
On the night of 5 May 1942, Japanese troops launched an all-out amphibious assault on Corregidor. The defenders were gradually overwhelmed, first at the beach defenses and then as they fell back towards Malinta Tunnel. Bitter and bloody fights raged for any piece of ground that might offer even a slight tactical advantage. Marine Gunner Harold Ferrell recalled Sweeney’s parting words: “Well, this is it. We’ve been in the Marine Corps fifteen years and this is what we’ve been waiting for. If I don’t see you, that’s the way it is.”
Sweeney found his good friend Quartermaster Sergeant John Haskin – now a platoon leader – and joined the effort to re-take Battery Denver. A Japanese machine gun crew had set up shop in the base of a concrete water tower, and from this ad-hoc bunker they cut men down in droves – until Sweeney and Haskin arrived.
Sometimes the men would get up the slopes leading to the battery gun pits, but they were always driven back, fewer in number each time. On the right flanks, Sergeant Major Sweeney and Sergeant Haskin took advantage of the water tower's battered elevation to hurl grenades down on the machine guns that were holding up the advance; Haskin was killed trying to get more grenades up to Sweeney, and Sweeney was picked off after he had knocked out at least one of the guns. [Quartermaster Clerk Frank] Ferguson, who knew and had served with both these long-time regulars, wrote their simple epitaph: They were very close friends in life, and it was most fitting that they should go out together.
The battle for Water Tower Hill seesawed back and forth a few times, but the Japanese ultimately held the position. The bodies of Sweeney, Haskin, and dozens more were left behind as the Americans withdrew toward Malinta Tunnel.
For an excellent discussion and photographs of Water Tower Hill, visit Corregidor.org
Burial Information or Disposition
Thomas Sweeney’s body was identified at least twice after the battle – and may have been seen by several others who had the scene burned into their memories.
In 1943, while held at Cabanatuan Prison Camp, Sergeant Major John B. Kelly swore to seeing Sweeney’s lifeless form on Corregidor. PFC Fred S. Vinton gave similar testimony; their statements helped to declare Sweeney killed in action as of 6 May 1942. The news reached Lois – and ten-year-old Thomas Junior – in the summer of 1943.
If Vinton or Kelly happened to mention where on Corregidor they encountered Sweeney’s body, the information was not recorded.
Other men remembered seeing bodies around the water towers in the days and months after the surrender. Because so many men died in the vicinity – and because the witnesses either did not know Sweeney or were unable to recognize him – these recollections should not be considered as proof of the Sweeney’s whereabouts.
Sergeant Major Charles R. Jackson (HQ/2/4th Marines) was among those forced to surrender on 6 May 1942. Several days later, he was with a group of POWs marching by Battery Denver.
We passed the battered water tower where Supply Sergeant Haskell [sic] of our regiment had died in the darkness, throwing grenades at the foe beneath him. There was still a body there lying on its face, with the arms hanging down along the walls. The clutching fingers were outlined blackish-green against the alabaster white of the walls. We wondered who the dead man was. We could not see his face because it was turned away from us at a crazy angle.
Another prisoner of war, Dick Bilyeu (59th Coast Artillery), was part of a burial detail sent to Corregidor in early 1943. Every American body found was carefully searched for identification, then boxed and transported for burial “at the east end of Corregidor.” One day, Bilyeu chanced upon several fallen Japanese and set out to find the American position that caused the carnage. He scaled one of the water towers and beheld an unforgettable scene:
There at the north edge was a .30 caliber water-cooled machine gun, its barrel pointed in a rakish manner toward the sky, with expended rounds of ammunition everyplace scattered for seven or eight feet around the gun. At the rear of the machine gun were the skeletal remains of a soldier.... His finger bones were extending from the sleeve of his khaki shirt, his flesh long since gone, blown away by the winds and rains.... On the belt side of the machine gun were the remains of a Marine, in the Marine Corps green fatigue uniform. His right arm had been blown some four or five feet away. Part of the shoulder bone was still there, but the sleeve and the rest of the arm was torn off completely. His left arm was folded across the front of his shirt as if we were feeling for his right arm.... These two soldiers had rested here since the fall of Corregidor, their flesh wasting away in the sun and the heat and the rain and the wind.
Bilyeu recalled that both the soldier and the Marine were identified by tags (though he does not use their real names) and were taken to the cemetery. There is a low – but extant – possibility that he found the remains of Thomas Sweeney, and the identity was lost sometime after burial.
After the war, the Army Graves Registration Service (AGRS) arrived on Corregidor to exhume the wartime cemeteries and locate any isolated burials. They found several clustered around the water towers and mapped the locations with crosses. One of the men they identified from a lone grave was Quartermaster Sergeant Haskin; he was accounted for in 1949, and the remains returned to his family for burial in Plattsburg Cemetery, Vallonia, Indiana.
John Haskin and Thomas Sweeney were both awarded posthumous Silver Star Medals for their actions on 6 May 1942. The decoration was presented to Private First Class Thomas F. Sweeney Junior in a ceremony at Camp Lejeune in 1951.
The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Silver Star (Posthumously) to Sergeant Major Thomas Frank Sweeney (MCSN: 208378), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving with Company A, First Battalion, Fourth Marines in action against enemy Japanese forces at Corregidor, in the Philippine Islands, on the night of 5 May 1942. Correctly gauging the threat to our forces when the invading enemy established a machine gun on top of a water tower on the eastern part of the island fortress, Sergeant Major Sweeney resolutely determined to silence the savagely firing weapon. Quick to act, he fearlessly made his way to the base of the tower under cover of darkness and, boldly exposing himself to the slashing fury of enemy rifle fire, rapidly scaled the face of the structure and succeeded in reaching the top, despite the sudden intensity of hostile shellfire which assailed him on all sides. Taking the gun crew by surprise, he dropped a live grenade among the occupying Japanese, then dived head-first into the group of enemy soldiers remaining alive after the grenade explosion, thereby frustrating their attempts to fire. Fiercely engaging in hand-to-hand combat, he killed the fanatically fighting Japanese one by one before he himself fell, mortally wounded. Unable to leave the tower, he succumbed shortly after the heroic fulfillment of his voluntary mission. Stouthearted and indomitable, Sergeant Major Sweeney, by his dauntless initiative, aggressive fighting spirit and self-sacrificing devotion to duty in the face of tremendous odds, had single-handedly annihilated an extremely effective, strategically placed Japanese installation and his outstanding valor and cool decision in a critical situation reflect the highest credit upon himself and the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
Memorials
Next Of Kin Address
Address of wife, Mrs. Lois Sweeney.
Location Of Loss
Sweeney was killed near the water towers overlooking Battery Denver.
