Yeoman Second Class William Tremblay, 1942-
Assigned to the ship’s office in a fleet oiler in Australia after the start of World War II, he answered a request for duty watchstanders with the Melbourne Australia Fleet Radio Unit. Having a flair for languages having learned five, he answered that request not knowing that it was the decoding group that was monitoring the Japanese Fleet message traffic. Training himself in the language beyond what was required, Petty Officer Tremblay completed his required work on 14 May 1942 at 2330, but he saw that a number of low priority message intercepts were incomplete or so garbled that they might never be decoded. On his own initiative he completed the work necessary to recognize that he had the complete Japanese Navy Battle Plan of Attack upon Midway Island. No other location had intercepted the message or could decipher it, including Washington,
D.C. By his initiative of doing his job, and then some more, Petty Officer Tremblay provided the U.S. Navy with the enemy plans with which the Navy accomplished one of history’s greatest military victories.Return to Roll of Honor List
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