Peru, 1937
Torpedoman Third Class Thomas Wiley Marks posed in Callao, Peru, during the The Inter-American Technical Conference on Aviation in September 1937.
Thomas Marks (1913-1983), who was 24 years old when this photo was taken, was born in Albemarle, Virginia. He enlisted in the Navy at Norfolk on 28 July 1935, and was a Pearl Harbor and Korean War veteran. He served aboard Worden for nearly seven years, from 1936 to 1943. By the end of World War II he had been commissioned an ensign (lower right photo), and he retired from the Navy as a lieutenant commander. He is buried at Wilson Cemetery in Floyd County, Virginia.
The Farragut-class destroyers Worden and Hull escorted the aircraft carrier Ranger to Peru in early September 1937; the port of Callao is a suburb of the capital, Lima. A few weeks later, Worden and Hull stopped at Balboa, Canal Zone, en route back to the United States.
Worden also visited Peru in 1936.
The “U.S.S. WORDEN” hatband (upper right) appears smudged, but readable, in this hand-tinted photo. A modern photo of a vintage Worden hatband, known as a tally, shows a clear resemblance.
