Commander Thomas Calloway Latimore was an American naval officer who was captain of the , and the 24th (22nd unique) Governor of American Samoa. His disappearance in Hawaii, just months before the 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor

Attack on Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...

, remains an unsolved mystery.

A quiet man

A career navy man, Latimore was promoted from Ensign

Ensign

An ensign is a national flag when used at sea, in vexillology, or a distinguishing token, emblem, or badge, such as a symbol of office in heraldry...

 to Lieutenant junior grade in 1917. He served as acting Governor of American Samoa from April 10 to April 17, 1934. After his brief office, Latimore, a Naval Intelligence officer, was transferred from Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 and given command of the destroyer tender

Destroyer tender

A destroyer tender is a ship designed to provide maintenance support to a flotilla of destroyers or other small warships. The use of this class has faded from its peak in the first half of the 20th century as the roles of small combatants have evolved .Due to the increased size and automation of...

, the USS Dobbin in April 1941. Although a Commander, he was given the command of the ship. A quiet, solitary man he enjoyed hiking in the then undeveloped [[ʻAiea, Hawaii|Aiea Mountain Range]] that overlooked the harbor (21.3859°N 157.930927°W).

Then Yeoman

Yeoman

Yeoman refers chiefly to a free man owning his own farm, especially from the Elizabethan era to the 17th century. Work requiring a great deal of effort or labor, such as would be done by a yeoman farmer, came to be described as "yeoman's work"...

 second class Kenneth Isaacs who served on the Dobbin remembers that once Latimore, "came back to the ship, and he had an arm wound which he said he hurt in a fall. For a while he had an arm in a cast." In July the arm had healed and when the cast was removed the Commander went up into the mountains again, never to be seen again. The last time he was seen he was wearing his khaki

Khaki

This article is about the fabric. For the color, see Khaki . Kaki, another name for the persimmon, is often misspelled "Khaki".Khaki is a type of fabric or the color of such fabric...

 uniform, an old hat and a walking stick.

When he didn't return search parties of hundreds of sailors and local police scoured the mountains looking for him. Trackers with dogs were brought in from Schofield Barracks

Schofield Barracks, Hawai'i

Schofield Barracks is a United States Army post and census-designated place located in the City and County of Honolulu and in the Wahiawa District of the island of Oahu, Hawaii, United States. Schofield Barracks lies adjacent to the town of Wahiawā, separated from most of it by Lake Wilson...

 but no trace of Latimore or his body was ever found. A Navy probe into his disappearance was launched in 1941. His disappearance was never explained and was the subject of much local news coverage and rumor before being overshadowed by the Pearl Harbor attack. On 19 July 1942 he was officially declared dead.

Rumors in the Navy

• In the Navy there were rumors that he might have been abducted and killed by the local Japanese spy ring either because he stumbled upon some sort of Fleet Plotting in the hills or he was specifically targeted because of his Intelligence background.
• Others who believe that United States President, Franklin D. Roosevelt
  Franklin D. Roosevelt
  Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
  
  , had set up the Pearl Harbor attack in order to galvanize the American public into war, believe that Latimore may have had forewarning of the attack from his Naval Intelligence contacts and decided to disappear before the Japanese strike.