Hancock (CV 19) - Naval Cruise Book

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Ulithi Atoll Little Grass Shack

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During the brief stay in Ulithi Admiral W. F. Halsey paid the Hannah a visit to present medals and awards to her personnel. Top honors for the occasion went to departing Captain Dickey with the presentation of the Silver Star for his services as Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. Hancock. ln traditional ceremonies on the hangar deck Captain Robert V. Hickey, U.S.N., relieved Captain Dickey as commanding officer of the Hancock. Following the change of command the new Captain made a personnel inspection of his officers and crew. Captain Hickey came to the Hancock after a tour of duty as Director of Aviation Personnel in the office of the Chief of Naval Operations. His record in the Navy covers nearly every type of combatant ship from submarine to aircraft carriers. Graduated from the Naval Academy in l92l his first duty was the battleship Wyoming from which he was ordered to the destroyer Pope, Asiatic patrol. The succeeding months were to bring the Hannah ever closer to the shores which its new commanding officer, as a bright young Ensign in l922, had patrolled in a four piper destroyer only eighteen New Jersey Surveys Third Fleet at Ulithvl Anchorage

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r I I I I I I months from its Pennsylvania builder's yard. This same Pope was sunk by superior Jap forces on March I, I942, while escorting the battle-damaged British cruiser Exeter lJava Seal and the Encounter through Soenda Strait between Java and Sumatra after a two-month running engagement against Ovefwhelming OCICIS. From the Pope Captain Hickey went to submarine duty on the S-6 lstricken from Navy register in I937l where he remained until ordered to Pensacola as a student aviator. From Pensacola he tried his wings aboard the Navy's first carrier, the Langley, CV-I lex-collier Jupiter lost off Java, February 28th, I94'2l , followed by a tour of shore duty before going to sea on the California, West Virginia, Idaho and New Mexico. OPERATION FOUR The Hannah again sortied Ulithi on December lOth, intent on kn-ockng out enemy airfields in the Philippines in strategic support of landings on Mindoro. The first strikes were launched on December I4th against Clark and Angeles airfields as well as ground targets on Salvador Island from San Fernando. Japanese air strength had been heavily reinforced from For- mosa, China and the Empire and only by maintaining a continual patrol over the target airfields could the new Jap fraternity be prevented from using its suicide attacks against our ships. Ground troops on Luzon had also been reenforced and the Hannah's Air Group continued strikes against enemy ground installations at Masinloc, San Fernando and Cabanatuan on the I5th while fighter patrols kept Jap airmen down. Shipping strikes were n-ot forgotten during this period and many tons of supplies for the beleaguered Japs became fish food in Manila and other harbors. December I6th was the last strike day in the Hannah's Fourth Operation. Strikes on the l9th and 2Oth were cancelled due to a severe typhoon which prevented refufeling on the l7th and damaged the anti-aircraft cruiser San Juan as well as damaging three destroyers IHull, Spence and Monaghanl so badly they foundered with severe loss of life. The typhoon was not unexpected but the importance of operation was so great that it could not be curtailed until flight operations were impossible. At the height of the storm waves broke over the Hannah's flight deck, fifty- five feet above the waterline. OPERATION FIVE The Third Fleet's Fast Carrier Task Force 38.2 sortied on December 30th on one of the most successful missions of naval history. Utilizing the escort carriers of the Seventh Fleet for close-in ground support in the Philippines, the fast carriers Hancock, Lexington, Ticonderoga and the smaller Indepen- dence, accompanied by the new battleships Iowa and New Jersey, plus the cruisers Vincennes, Miami, Pasadena and San Juan, embarked on a destruc- tion against airfields on Formosa, Luzon and a sally into the South China Sea. Steaming north and west from Ulithi, the Hannah launched strikes against Formosa on January 3rd, hitting airfields at Koshun and Heito. A new tech- nique was used on this second raid on the inner-defense ring-each evening at sunset the Independence would swing out of formation to launch planes for a nighttime CAP. Throughout the night planes patrolled overhead to eliminate enemy blows under cover of darkness. On the 4th, after a good night's rest unmarred by GQ lbattle stationsl, the Hannah's planes took to the air over Southwest Formosa to hit shipping and the airfield at Heite.