This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Surnames: CARY
Classification: Military
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/ykH.2ACEB/513
Message Board Post:
Source:
http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/moh1.htm
Note: This is not my ancestry. I have NO additional information. I am just passing along
information that may be useful.
CARY, ROBERT W.
Rank and organization: Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Navy, U.S.S. San Diego. Place and date:
Aboard U.S.S. San Diego, 21 January 1915. Entered service at: Buncston, Mo. Birth: Kansas
City, Mo. Citation: For extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession on the
occasion of an explosion on board the U.S.S. San Diego, 21 January 1915. Lt. Comdr. Cary
(then Ensign), U.S. Navy, an observer on duty in the firerooms of the U.S.S. San Diego,
commenced to take the half-hourly readings of the steam pressure at every boiler. He had
read the steam and air pressure on No. 2 boiler and was just stepping through the electric
watertight door into No. 1 fireroom when the boilers in No. 2 fireroom exploded. Ens. Cary
stopped and held open the doors which were being closed electrically from the bridge, and
yelled to the men in No. 2 fireroom to escape through these doors, which 3 of them did.
Ens. Cary's action undoubtedly saved the lives of these men. He held the doors
probably a minute wit!
h the escaping steam from the ruptured boilers around him. His example of coolness did
much to keep the men in No. 1 fireroom at their posts hauling fires, although 5 boilers in
their immediate vicinity had exploded and boilers Nos. 1 and 3 apparently had no water in
them and were likely to explode any instant. When these fires were hauled under Nos. 1 and
3 boilers, Ens. Cary directed the men in this fireroom into the bunker, for they well knew
the danger of these 2 boilers exploding. During the entire time Ens. Cary was cool and
collected and showed an abundance of nerve under the most trying circumstances. His action
on this occasion was above and beyond the call of duty.
Burial: Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA
Born: 1890; KANSAS CITY, MO
Died: 1967
Additional Information and cemetery monument photo:
http://www.homeofheroes.com/gravesites/arlington/cary_robert.html