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A member of the Class of 1941, Tom’s name and picture only appear as an underclassman in the 1940 yearbook. The Stickney’s lived at 281 Boulevard. In addition to playing football, Tom was also captain of the Tennis squad. He was my age when he left his friends and family here at Mountain Lakes and enlisted in the Navy before graduation.
Thomas joined the Navy like his father did during World War I. During WWII, Jr. served aboard the U.S.S. Lexington, an Essex-class aircraft carrier that fought in the Pacific Theater. He had many experiences aboard the ship, nicknamed "The Blue Ghost" by the Japanese because they reported they had sunk it on four separate occasions and were wrong every time. On November 5, 1944, shortly after the Lexington's participation in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, a decisive air and sea battle that crippled the Japanese fleet and paved the way for the U.S. invasion of the Philippines, a Kamikaze suicide attack struck Stickney's ship. Once again, the "Blue Ghost" survived, but this time, Tom and 46 other sailors did not.
Although Tom was buried at sea, there is a memorial marker for him at the Riverside National Cemetery in California.
World War II Causalities
Charles E. Butts David T Powell Edwin T Sanders Frederick Walker Castle Gilbert Cole
Gilbert H. Higgins Jr, Howard B. Larlee J. Gilbert Jones John V. Theim Quin P. Turkington
Robeson Sherrerd Thomas B. Stickney William M. Thompson W. Richard Fleming, Jr
Conflicts in which Lakers Served & Sacrificed
World War I World War II Korean War Vietnam War Post-Vietnam
World War II propaganda film Freedom Comes High (1944) shows how a young wife learns,
when her husband's ship is struck during battle, that freedom must sometimes be paid for in lives.
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