Ships
- USS Preston (DD-379) Captain, 1 July 1940 – 31 October 1941
Timothy Joseph O'Brien (born 22 February 1897) was a United States Navy officer from Springfield, Massachusetts, who entered the Naval Academy in June 1917, graduated with the class of 1921, and commanded the destroyer Preston (DD-379) as a lieutenant commander from mid-1940 to 31 October 1941. His career before and after that command ran through naval aviation stations, the fleet carriers Saratoga and Ranger, and university instruction. He rose to captain by June 1942 and retired from the Navy in July 1950 as a rear admiral. The records examined for this account give little else.
He was born on 22 February 1897, according to uboat.net, and the Navy Memorial's register of service gives his birthplace as Springfield, Massachusetts. His class book of 1921 gives the same town as his home, and says that the people of Springfield, "the natives back in Springfield," had seen him play basketball. The sources examined here do not name his parents or describe his family or schooling.
According to the 1921 Lucky Bag (the Academy yearbook), he "wandered into our midst early in June, 1917 looking for big game." He was twenty. The sketch calls him "Tim," "O'Bie," "Hodcarrier" and "Spig," describes him as "this fiery dashing exponent of clay-pipes and harps," and says that the class of 1918, then the upperclassmen, "had the old fashioned idea of Plebe rates," but that "when they shoved off he surely lent voice to his feelings." No one could help listening to Tim "when he burst forth into those enchanting Irish melodies. His voice really ought to be cultivated—it needs it!" He ran minor-league basketball and, when not too busy, "used to take a shower with the sub squad," and he was "no mean basketballer." At Christmas leave he organized a team in Springfield, "defeated the Starfish Giants, and next day the old home bum-wad came out with the enlightening dope, 'O'Brien, fleet Navy forward, was all over the court, shooting baskets from many difficult angles.'" The writers added that at home he was "naturally popular" and "well acquainted with the Police Department," and closed with "a warm and sincere Irish 'Best o' luck, Tim.'" The activities line records two stripes, the staff of the Log, captaincy of the regimental basketball champions, and captaincy of the first-class basketball team.
He graduated with the class of 1921. The Navy Directories place him as an ensign in the destroyer Pope in 1923 and 1924 and, as a lieutenant (junior grade), at the Naval Air Station at Pensacola in 1925 and in the Tulsa in 1926. In 1927 he was a lieutenant on instruction duty at the Naval Academy. In 1928 the directory lists him under instruction at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Cambridge. In 1929 he is at the Naval Air Station at Lakehurst, New Jersey, and in 1930 at the Naval Air Station at Hampton Roads. From 1930 to 1932 he was in the carrier Saratoga, and from 1932 to 1934 at the Bureau of Aeronautics in Washington. By 1937 he was a lieutenant commander, serving in the carrier Ranger as gunnery officer. From 1938 to 1939 he was at Yale University in New Haven, attached to the Naval Reserve Officers' Training Corps. The directories do not say what the aviation-station assignments were; the sources examined here do not show whether he was a pilot, an observer or an administrative officer.
In the summer of 1940, at forty-three, he took command of the Preston, a Mahan-class destroyer commissioned in 1936. Uboat.net and NavSource date his command from 25 June 1940 to 31 October 1941. The Navy Directories of 1940 and 1941 list him in command. According to the Navy's history of the ship, the Preston spent that period in the Pacific Fleet's Battle Force, assigned first to Destroyer Squadron 2 and then to Destroyer Squadron 5, "conducting peacetime training exercises in the Pacific until 7 December 1941." The history does not name him, and no log, report, letter or recollection from that command has been found among the sources examined here. He left the ship five weeks before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. His date of rank as commander was 1 July 1941, according to uboat.net, and as temporary captain 20 June 1942. The Preston was sunk in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on 14–15 November 1942 under another captain.
The Register of Commissioned Officers for 1944 lists him as a captain. The sources examined here do not say where he served between November 1941 and his retirement, or what he did in the war.
The United States Navy Memorial's register of service gives his rank as rear admiral and his service as June 1917 to July 1950, thirty-three years after he entered the Academy. The sources examined here do not say whether the rank of rear admiral came on the active list or on retirement, give his postwar assignments, a marriage or children, or record his death or burial. No obituary was found.
What remains of O'Brien is a yearbook portrait of a singing, basketball-playing Irish-American midshipman from Springfield; a long run of billets that touched aviation, carriers and instruction; and sixteen months at the head of one destroyer in the long approach to the war.