Memorial to Thomas H. Peters 506407
Pensacola Pre-Flight Class 17-47

 

Letter to Lou Ives from Pete Tufo

 

29 Apr 1993

Regarding a Pre-Flight classmate, Tom Peters, who was lost on a gunnery training flight at the time he was going through Advanced at Cabaniss.

We were looking for a poem that Peters’ mother had composed on the train trip home after the memorial service. I recalled it had been published in one or more Navy Publications.

Well due to a highly efficient and sophisticated filing system, and turning everything upside down for the umpteenth time, the search is over.

Attached is a copy of said poem as published in the Oct. 1949 edition of the All Hands magazine. I submit it for whatever action is deemed appropriate. I suggest an engraved plaque bearing the poem be added to the Naval Aviation Museum.

 

Best regards,

/s/ Pete

 

 

A MOTHER'S PRAYER

Sleep gently, my son,
Where the waters are deep --
God's Love does enshroud you
Treasures you there --
Lie peaceful, my son.
Sleep gently, my son,
Where the waters are blue --
God's bosom enfold you
Cradles you there --
Lie peaceful, my son.

Sleep gently, my son,
Where the waters run warm –
God's angels wing round you
"Eternal 'Roger, "' Loved one!
Wait peaceful, my son.

On Flag Day, 14 June 1949, a young student pilot named Midshipman Thomas H. Peters, USN, crashed-landed in the sea 33 miles from his base at NAAS Cabaniss Field, Tex., as a result of engine failure. His gunnery instructor watched helplessly from another plane as Midshipman Peters, possibly unconscious, was carried down with his craft.

Later, his grief-stricken mother, Mrs. T. H. Peters, of Passaic, N. J., wrote a short memorial poem in honor of Midshipman Peters – a poem which might be of condolence to mothers of other Navy men whose last resting place is the unknown deep of the sea.

 

Class: 
Pensacola Pre-Flight Class 17-47