Chief Gunners Mate Thomas W. Humerick
James Houck
Emmitsburg
received a new resident, shortly after June 13,
1945, the date Tom Humerick was born at Annie M.
Warner Hospital Gettysburg Pa. Tom was brought home
by his father John G. (Jack) Humerick and mother
Eleanor (Mingle) Humerick. Tom's grandfather had
taken his family and moved from Emmitsburg in the
late 1800's to Altoona Pa. to build train cars for
the Pennsylvania Railroad because there was no work
in the Emmitsburg area at that time.
Toms grandfather
moved back to Emmitsburg and worked at what everyone
in the area refers to as the "Tunnel". John
graduated from high school in Altoona and got
married very soon there after moved to Baltimore Md.
and worked as a salesman. He moved back to
Emmitsburg in 1942 with his wife and Toms older
brother Michael who was born in 1941.
Tommy, as he was
called by people in the Emmitsburg who knew him, had
a great childhood growing up around town. One of
Toms first memories was of he and his brother Mike
going along with their father who sold Fuller
Brushes to make a sales call in Brunswick Md. and
his dad dropping them off on a hill overlooking the
trains and the roundtable and being fascinated the
entire time and on the way home they would stop at
Mays Ice Cream in Middletown Md. and get a cone and
what a treat that was to a kid on a hot day.
Jack also worked
part time for Clarence Frailey at the grocery store
and Tom remembers a funny little thing that happened
to his dad while making a delivery. Mr. Frailey had
an old silver panel truck to make deliveries in and
Jack was making a delivery on Annandale Rd. and the
seats being worn popped a spring through and it got
caught in the seat of his trousers and he couldn't
get out of the seat so he had to remove his trousers
to get loose and being on the side of the road he
was really rushing to get out of and back into his
trousers.
Happening fifty
five or sixty years ago Tom is amazed at how clear
the memory is to him and still laughs . He remembers
when the first wall with names of local WWII
Veterans was erected in front of American Legion
Post 121. The wall was built in the 1950's and he
passed it every day while it was being built on his
way to and from school. Tommy went to St. Euphemia's
and Mother Seton Schools through eighth grade and
Emmitsburg High School nine through twelve.
Tom was the
neighborhood postman because when he got out of
school in the afternoon he would stop at the post
office and hold his hands out and he would be
presented with all his neighbors mail and then he
would distribute it.. Tommy especially liked to pick
the mail up on Saturday because one of his
neighbors, Mrs. Hoke would be baking dinner rolls
and sticky buns and he was always rewarded for
delivering her mail. Tom like most kids in the
Emmitsburg area picked cherries when they were in
season and recalls the fun of working in the
orchards for I. Z. Mussleman at Ortanna Pa. where
his brother Mike being four years his senior made
him pick the tops while Mike picked the bottoms and
guess who made the most money that's right it wasn't
Tommy.
Tom also worked for
Ed Meadows at his farm baling hay in the summer. Mr.
Everett Chrismer a WWII Navy Veteran worked at the
post office and he was one of Tommy's childhood
heroes . When Tom was fourteen years old he knew
that some day he was going to be a Chief because
that was all he wanted since he met Mr. Chrismer..
Tom truly loves Emmitsburg because he has been all
over the world and when someone asks him why always
returns to Emmitsburg he tells them because it is
clean and green you have four seasons and you have
the mountains and rivers we have some of the best
museums in the world and are an hour to an hour and
a half away also the ocean is a few hours to the
east so we have it all.
Tom graduated in
June of 1963 and the day after graduation he went to
Fort Holibird at Baltimore Md. to join the navy and
the agreement he had with the recruiter (because Tom
was fascinate with history from an early age)was to
hold off until July 22 1963 because tom wanted to be
here for the 100th anniversary of the Gettysburg
battle. Tom took his very first flight in an
airplane. He left Friendship Airport (now BWI) and
landed in O’Hara in Chicago Ill. and a bus took him
to boot camp. Tom said it was all down hill from
there and an experience. He served on many ships and
the first one was a destroyer ship. Tom was in for
the long haul and received many Medals including the
Purple Heart for being hit by shrapnel.
On July 31, 1985
twenty two years later Tom retired from the Navy.
Tom said he has not had one regret for joining the
Navy. He said he met so many good people and made so
many good connections and still does.
Tom is a traveler
and has been in many countries, and since returning
from service, has taken lots of motorcycle trips all
over the U.S. but always returns to Emmitsburg. Tom
has two children Jillian and Tom Jr. and three grand
children Aston , Charisa and Tom III. Tom's first
Motorcycle trip after returning home was with his
son Tom Jr. and they went up through New England
over into Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and stopped
at Halifax and back down into Maine and visited
cousins while there and went to Lake Placid for a
motorcycle rally where Willie Nelson was the
entertainment and he was amazed at how much his son
enjoyed listening to Willie because his sons type of
music was rock. They left there and returned to
Maryland and then Tom went to California to his
cousins wedding then to Yosemite National Park and
Death Valley and Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon then
up to the Great Salt lakes then Montana and Devils
Tower and Mount Rushmore then the Black Hills and
the Badlands on his motorcycle.
Tom is going over
to Brussels Belgium June 15th with his daughter and
granddaughter for the reenactment of the 295th
anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo and stay about
a week or so with them and they are coming back to
the states and Tom is going over to Holland and
Germany and visit with a friend of his that was in
the German Navy. Tom hasn't seen him since the
seventies and wants to spend some time with him and
his family. Tom met some good people in the service.
Tom worked a couple
of odd jobs like bartender at the Ott House but has
been living mainly on his retirement. He is really
into Civil War reenactments and makes all his own
uniforms and accessaries. Tom was in the motion
picture Gettysburg in several scenes as a matter of
fact he can be seen in blue and grey coming over
fences in the same scenes because of the way the
film was edited. He plays any role that is open for
the reenactments. Tom goes all over the country to
reenactments including Maryland, Pennsylvania, West
Virginia, Virginia.
Tom also volunteers
at Harpers Ferry West Virginia, and if you would
like to interact with the Tom and players the best
time will be the middle of October for 1860 election
days and the best day to be there is Saturday
because this year will be 150 years since election
days and there will some good times including John
Browns Raid.
Tom said everyone
is up in arms because this is happening on an
election year and the states are talking about
succeeding everyone will be in period clothing and
visitors will get to interact with the players.
Militia will be there and Marines and Regular Army
and Irish acting like railroad workers, canal
workers, locals and farmers and temperence society
trying to shut down the taverns and this will take
place in the whole down town area. There will also
be a parade.
Tom also does WWI
reenactments at Newville Pa. where they have about
150 acres with trenches and bunkers and barbed wire
and machine gun nests and shell craters. They do
central powers and allies and people come from
Russia and Australia and New Zealand and British and
from all over. Some do not speak English but they
can communicate. They have two big events a year one
in the spring and one in the fall. They even use
vintage planes and drop flour instead of bombs.
Tom has been a
member of the Emmitsburg Ambulance Company for
fifteen years and is fairly active as a member
helping at bingo and keeps his certifications up to
date.
The next time you
see Tom, stop and say hi and shake his hand and he
will take time to engage you in conversation no
matter how busy he is and believe me he is a very
active and busy man. He not only travels and
reenacts but he lives alone and keeps his house up
and he recently bought his parents house, they both
passed away three years ago, and is going to remodel
it and rent it out. Tom still has his first
motorcycle a 1955 Triumph and I'll bet you some day
you will hear of him restoring it and starting it up
and going on one of his long rides.
I have had the
pleasure of talking to one of the most polite,
busiest and intelligent people living in Emmitsburg
and I knew his whole family and it really saddens me
Tom's two sisters have passed away and his parents
have also passed. Tom and Mike survive yet and I
hope to talk to Mike soon because I am sure he will
have interesting stories for me because he is
retired from the Air Force and has been a guide in
Alaska for a long time. I plan to catch him when he
comes home for white tail season.
Thomas W. Humerick
a veteran and great Emmitsburgian.
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