Baskin, Thomas Alley

Private Thomas Alley Baskin's Headstone

Quick Facts

Significance:

Private - United States Marine Corps

Place of Birth:

Rutherford County, Tennessee

Date of Birth:

August 2, 1917

Place of Death:

Japonski Island, Sitka, Alaska

Date of Death:

October 12, 1941

Place of Burial:

Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Cemetery Name:

Stones River National Cemetery

Thomas Alley Baskin was born on August 2, 1917 and was a native of Rutherford County, Tennessee. He had one brother, James Houston Baskin, and two sisters, Mattie Francis Walden and Anna May Baskin. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on August 6, 1940 as a private at San Francisco and trained in San Diego. After his training, he was sent to Washington, D.C. before moving to the Sitka Naval Air Station on Japonski Island, Sitka, Alaska in January of 1941, where he served as a guard. 

On October 12, 1941, at a military construction site on the station, a fire broke out in a warehouse containing stores of dynamite. A group of Army firefighters responded and decided to use a hose connected to a fire hydrant to put out the fire with water. At this point, Captain Tate, who was the commandant of the base, arrived on the scene. He tried to tell the firefighters that putting water on the dynamite would most likely cause an explosion, but the men didn’t listen. Tate made it 400 yards away from the fire before the 21 tons of dynamite exploded, killing six soldiers and injuring 13 people. 

There are conflicting reports on if Baskin was helping to put the fire out or working as a guard nearby. Either way, he died in the explosion at 24 years old. Baskin was posthumously awarded the Naval Cross for heroism. His body was brought back to Rutherford County and he was buried at Stones River National Cemetery. He rests in plot P-6192.