USMC PFC Thomas "Tommy" Edwin Oliver was born on February 22, 1909 in Pensacola, Florida, the son of John Gerald Oliver (1873-1942) and Mary Aloyusis Bonifay (1876-1918). His mother was the daughter of Eugene Cross Bonifay whose family was one of the first settlers of Pensacola along with Manuel, Josefa, and Marianna Bonifay. As the Civil War approached, the Bonifay brothers of Henry C. (1842-1862), Eugene Cross (1841-1910), Francis Casimir (1832-1927), and Felix Julian (1938-1884) all walked down to Ferdinand Square and enlisted in the Confederate service. All but Felix Julian enlisted on May 31, 1861, with Company "K" of the 1st Florida Infantry Regiment. Felix enlisted on November 1, 1862. with the 15th Confederate Cavalry. All served throughout the war except for their brother Henry whose body was buried in a shallow grave on April 6, 1862, after he was killed at the battle of Shiloh.
As for Tommy's father, he would support his large family as a deputy tax collector until the 1920's when he transferred to Panama City to the government's customs office. When of age, Tommy entered Bay County High School where he excelled in football, baseball, and basketball. After graduation, he received a scholarship to the University of Florida before transferring to Catholic University in Washington D.C. in his sophomore year. According to Kirsten Mitchell in an article of Aug 18, 2018 she wrote that his grandchildren stated that even there, he excelled in sports, setting an all-time record of an 84-yard punt in 1934. Mitchell also went on to say that Tommy at one time played professional football for the Washington Redskins.
While in D.C. he married Dorothea Elizabeth Hailer (1914-2005) on July 10, 1935. By 1938, they were back in Panama City, Florida where he became the head coach at his old alma mater Bay County High School. To add to the family income Dorothy took a job as well as a telephone operator until he was inducted into the US Marines in 1944. After basic training at Parris Island, he was assigned to Company "H" of the 3rd battalion with the 29th Marine Regiment of the 6th Marine Regiment. There he was assigned to handle a "flamethrower," one of the weapons that the Japanese feared the most.
In the meantime, Tommy said goodbye to Dorothy and shipped out with his regiment as America began assembling an invasion force for the last great battle in the Pacific. The island of Okinawa was badly needed for its airfields close to the Japanese homeland as well as its harbors. It was also going designated as the major staging area for the invasion of Japan. The regiment landed on D-Day, April 1, 1945 only to find out the enemy had thrown them a curve ball. There was absolutely no resistance on the beaches unlike other island campaigns. The Japanese strategy was to set their traps inland and not at the water's edge. Regardless, the regiment moved steadily through the northern Motobu Peninsula where they encountered only light resistance. After the peninsula fell, the 6th Division was sent to the western side of the island for the final offensive. The American forces pushed the Japanese backwards until they reached "Sugar Loaf Hill" near Naha on May 12th. The hill was an essential part of the Shuri defense line where so many of the American casualties occurred during the battle. Tommy's regiment took extremely heavy casualties after one frontal assault after another until they finally captured the hill on May 18th. In fact, they lost so many Marines that the regiment had to be replaced on the line for lack of troops.
As the Japanese line began to collapse, the Japanese were able to extricate 30,000 troops for a last ditch stand on the Kiyan Peninsula. The 6th Division launched an amphibious landing onto the peninsular on June 4th causing many of the enemy to commit suicide in their tunnels. It was in these last few days of the battle on June 5th that Pensacolian Tommy Oliver was shot and killed by an enemy sniper at the age of 36-years old. Dorothy would receive the dreaded telegraph back home followed by an agonizing wait until April 1949 when his remains were finally returned home for burial in the Arlington National Cemetery. She would follow Tommy to Arlington in 2005. Nine years later, Tommy's sacrifice was honored by a grateful Panama City with the opening of the Tommy Oliver Memorial Stadium in 1954.
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