Every November 11, on Veterans Day, we honor those who have served our country for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good. This Veterans Day, We Honor Lieutenant Bruce Thoms, Navy officer, USO volunteer, and Mount Evans supporter.
Bruce was born in Chicago in 1940 and grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago. He attended Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. “As I approached graduation, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I’d always admired the Navy. I’d always liked the sea. So, I enlisted in Officer Candidate School (OCS),” explains Bruce.
After OCS, Bruce joined the USS Page County in San Francisco where it was under repair. The USS Page County was a Landing Ship Tank (LST) designed to transport tanks, vehicles, cargo, and troops. Bruce explains, “LST was also referred to as Long, Slow Trip because it’s maximum speed was 10 knots.”
After being in port for several months for repairs, they finally took the ship out underneath the Golden Gate Bridge to the Pacific. Bruce recalls, “As we’re going out under the bridge where the inlet water and the ocean water mix, it gets rough sometimes. After about five minutes somebody looked at me and said, ‘Bruce you don’t look so good.’ That was the one and only time I ever got sea sick—our first time out.”
As First Lieutenant and Gunnery Officer, Bruce was in charge of everything on the exterior of the ship—painting of the hull, anchoring, transfers at sea, and the 40 mm guns. During his three and a half years on the USS Page County, he travelled to Hawaii, Alaska, and Japan. Bruce recalls, “We spent eight wonderful months in Hawaii. There, I was very moved by the USS Arizona Memorial. We then went to Adak [Alaska], which was quite the opposite of Hawaii. Later, we went to transport some Marines to Japan, and we spent five short, precious days in Japan before we came back home.”
About halfway through his tour, Bruce was home in Chicago on Christmas leave when his next-door neighbor Bill suggested he go on a blind date with a woman named Pat. Bruce initially said no, but eventually relented when Bill agreed to make it a double date. When Bill called up Pat, she wanted no part of it till she found out her date would be a Navy officer. They went to a hockey game and continued to correspond once Bruce returned to San Diego. Bruce explains, “After about five or six weeks of dating, I called her from California from a telephone booth at the bar and I said ‘Well, we’ve seen each other a little bit, and we’ve written a lot of letters. I would like to marry you. Would you marry me?’ And her answer was ‘What did you say?’ And I said, ‘please don’t make me say that again it was difficult enough the first time.’ And shockingly she said’ yes.’”
Bruce continues, “Pat and I actually dated face-to-face from the time of the first date to actually walking down the aisle in church, about a total of five to six weeks.” And getting him to the church on time was no small feat proved to be quite the adventure.
A few weeks before their planned wedding day of July 24, 1965, Bruce’s ship got orders to leave San Diego for Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands. If the seas were good that was about a 14-day trip. Bruce recalls, “’I said but Captain I’m getting married just a few days after the ship is supposed to land.’ And he says, ‘I need you.’ And the good lord was with me, because unlike every other trip to the Aleutian Islands, the seas were as flat as a tabletop, like a mirror.”
Bruce continues, “We arrive around July 21st or 22nd. I was the first guy off the brow and asked somebody working on the docks when the next plane from Adak to Anchorage was? And he said, ‘Plane comes in here once a week, sir.’ And so I asked, ‘When’s it next expected?’ And he replied, ‘Tomorrow morning.’ So, I said, ‘Ok, book me.’
Bruce got on the plane in the morning thinking it was going to Anchorage, and instead it went to another island in the chain, the furthest one west. The next day, it’s all fogged in. Bruce explains, “Normally, the planes would take flight because they were used to fog, except this day, the FAA was present, so they couldn’t violate laws in the fog. So, we had to wait a couple hours to take off. On the flight I was a little chatty with the commander whose rank was three or four levels above mine. I told him I was getting married in a couple of days and was cutting it close.”
Bruce continues, “We finally land in Anchorage, and they promised us a bus to the civilian airport. No bus. 5 minutes pass. 10 minutes pass. And I say to myself, ‘Bruce, you need to take action.’ So, I went to the commander who was waiting for his limo, and said, ‘this bus has not arrived and may never arrive, could I ask that I ride with you to the civilian airport. And he said, ‘sure ensign, you don’t want to miss this wedding.’ And of course, since our mission in the Aleutians was top secret, Pat didn’t even know where I was for 14-15 days. I called her the next morning from Anchorage to let her know I’d be in Seattle in a couple of hours and then on to Chicago. She didn’t even know if there was going to be a wedding or not until that phone call. I landed in Chicago, hurried off to get a blood test, and on the hottest day of the year, made it to our wedding. 58+ years later we’re still together.”
The day after they got married they drove back to San Diego where his ship was based. Pat dropped him off at the airport so he could get back to Adak.
Bruce recalls, “Adak was a very unpleasant place. It was actually an island where the Japanese invaded during World War II with limited resources. Occasionally, you’d drive around and see some boxes of ammunition or other stuff. The sun never came out. It was grey every day of the four or five months we were there, with one exception. One day at about 11:30 am, the sun came out, and the Captain of the base declared it a holiday and an hour and a half later that was the end of the sun.”
Bruce’s proudest moment of service was when he countermanded the Commanding Officer’s order to save a man’s life. Bruce explains, “So we and dozens of other ships and marines are practicing an amphibious landing off the coast of San Diego. Each ship has an assignment. Our particular assignment was to hit the beach with vehicles and the marines on board at 0830.”
He continues, “The bow doors are huge, and they swing with the help of hydraulics. So, as we’re approaching the beach at 0820, we open the doors. And to open the doors you had to have a sailor go up and release the hatches, basically large thumbscrews. We’re approaching the beach at full speed and Seaman McDonald was on the bow door releasing the latches and all of a sudden instead of the doors staying closed, we lost hydraulic power, and the doors start swinging back and forth and hanging on for dear life with terror in his eyes was poor Seaman McDonald. So, I call up to the bridge, and I said ‘Captain, stop the ship right now.’ And he said, ‘What do you mean Lieutenant? We can’t stop. We have to be on schedule.’ And I said, ‘We have McDonald hanging on for dear life, sir, stop this ship.’ So, he did. And McDonald was saved and grateful ever since. And I felt pretty good about that.”
Bruce’s call to serve in the Navy goes back to when he was 12 or 13 years old and watching Victory at Sea. “They were mostly black and white movies of the Navy, and I thought ‘the Navy, that’s for me.’ Why? Because one episode had Americans sinking or shooting a ship or sub but instead of killing everyone, they rescued them and pulled them onboard their ship. I thought the Army and Marines, all they’re doing is killing people, but this Navy concept that was rather kind, and I thought if that was me, maybe I’ll be saved instead of being shot in the head by the enemy, so that’s specifically what drew me to the Navy, and I’ve never regretted it a day since, well, except for those days in Adak, Alaska.” Bruce laughs.
Bruce continues, “I was discharged in May 1966. Three weeks later our ship left for Vietnam.”
Bruce worked in Personnel and Outplacement for several corporations in Chicago. In 1992, Bruce and his wife, Pat, moved to Evergreen. A few years before their move Pat had been in Denver on business and called Bruce and said: ‘I found the best place for us to live! It’s called Evergreen.’ So, when a job opportunity came up in his company’s Denver office, Bruce didn’t hesitate. “I said ‘yes’ and on January 2, 1992, I was sitting up in a skyscraper in Denver looking out at the Rocky Mountains saying, ‘my dream came true,’” reminisces Bruce.
Continuing his military affiliation, both Bruce and Pat felt a calling to volunteer with the USO. Bruce says, “While at the USO, I established four benefit golf tournaments which brought in thousands of dollars. So, for our 50th wedding anniversary, we decided that we wanted to do a benefit for Mount Evans. We think highly of their mission, their compassion, and their dedication.”
Their Mount Evans benefit was to bring Cody Ray Slaughter, an Elvis Tribute Artist, to Denver. Seven years and 20 sold out shows later, Bruce and Pat have raised over a quarter of a million dollars for Mount Evans.
Bruce concludes, “My work in Personnel and even more so in Outplacement was to help people in stressful times. And Mount Evans’ mission is to help people in difficult times in their lives, so I thought I’ll still be helping the same humanitarian cause that fulfilled me in my past jobs.”
Mount Evans Home Health Care & Hospice provides experienced and compassionate in-home health, palliative, and hospice care to the mountain communities in Clear Creek, Gilpin, Jefferson, and Park counties. Their clinical care team has received veteran-centric education as part of We Honor Veterans, a program of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization in collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Incredibly inspiring story about a true American hero!