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TAPS
Fading light dims the sight,
And a star gems the sky,
Gleaming bright.
From afar drawing nigh,
Falls the night.
Day is done, gone the sun,
From the lake, From the hills,
From the sky.
All is well, safely rest,
God is nigh.
Then good night, Peaceful night,
Till the light of the dawn
Shineth bright,
God is near, do not fear,
Friend, good night. |
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BORN:
April 29, 1922 at Conemaugh, PA
Entered Service in the US
Army from Conemaugh, PA
Earned the Medal of Honor during World War II For heroism on
September 12, 1944 at Saulx de Vesoul, France
DIED: July
11, 1998 at the age of 76
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In an attack on
Saulx de Vesoul, France, First Lieutenant Tominac charged over 50
yards of exposed terrain onto an enemy roadblock to dispatch a
three-man crew. He then led one of his squads in the annihilation
of a second hostile group, killing about 30 of the enemy. Reaching
the suburbs of the town, he advanced 50 yards ahead of his men to
reconnoiter a third enemy position which commanded the road with a
77-mm SP gun supported by infantry elements. The SP gun opened
fire on his tank, setting it afire with a direct hit. A fragment
from the same shell wounded him in the shoulder, knocking him to
the ground. As the crew abandoned the M-4 tank, which was rolling
down hill toward the enemy, First Lieutenant Tominac picked
himself up and jumped onto the hull of the burning vehicle.
Despite enemy fire which was ricocheting off the hull and turret,
he climbed to the turret and gripped the 50-caliber antiaircraft
machinegun. Plainly silhouetted against the sky, painfully
wounded, and with the tank burning beneath his feet, he directed
bursts of fire on the roadblock and forced the enemy to withdraw.
Jumping off the tank before it exploded, he refused evacuation,
calling upon a sergeant to extract the shell fragments from his
shoulder with a pocketknife.
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