[ Home ] [ Lloyd Smith ] [ Orvis Fitts ] [ Bea Notley ] [ Jack Barker ] [ H B Warren ] [ Larry Zeller ] [ Robert Butler ] [ Wilbur Mowen ] [ Robert Parks ] [ Don Lowery ] [ Withheld ] [ Dena Huitt ] [ Paul Herpich ] [ Carl Hull ] [ Mac Birkmann ] [ Frank Hashman ] [ Richard McConnell ] [ Al  Lubberts ] [ Bernard Welsh ] [ Joseph Cox ] [ George Kolb ]

Joseph Cox
U.S. Navy

Interviewed by: Charlie Dees
Adult Secretary: Sandra Linville-Thomas

I went into the Navy because I didn’t want to go into the Army.  Ships were more adventurous.  I was sent to Great Lakes, Illinois, where they had a tremendous Naval training station, and I was there for about 10 weeks.  There was snow on the ground nine weeks out of ten and cold showers for nine weeks out of ten.

After I graduated from boot camp I was transferred to the USS Yorktown (CV 10) carrier.

People who start a ship are called plank owners.  They are the original people who helped commission the ship.  I was a plank owner.  I was there about three to four weeks before it was commissioned to help with work details and stand guard while they were welding.  I helped get the ship ready for commission.

In 1943 the ship was launched. Eleanor Roosevelt, representing the President, came down and broke a bottle of champagne across its bow.  In her case it didn’t break, but the second time she had a good swing.

The Japanese sunk the previous Yorktown  in the Pacific at the Battle of Midway.  The name was so prominent in the Navy that they immediately reassigned the name to another ship ready to be commissioned.

For the first 2 months, we went to South America on a shakedown cruise and then returned to Norfolk and went into drydock temporarily for 2 weeks, then went through the Panama Canal to Pearl Harbor.

We loaded aircraft, supplies, ammunition, gasoline, bombs and other armaments for a long trip.  We were then considered a task group.

In this task group were the Essex and Yorktown (two large carriers) and a small carrier called the Independence, a heavy cruiser, a light cruiser and destroyers as escorts.  Then we proceeded on the first carrier-based raid to Marcus Island.  This island was about 1,000 miles off of the coast of Japan and the reason for hitting it (dropping bombs, strafing, destroying what was on the island) was because it was one of the Japanese communication islands.  They didn’t expect any American ships to be that close to it.

There is an expression called "hit and run". That means this group would go several thousand miles and hit an island overnight, then run to another island and hit it, and then to another island and hit it, go back into port, reload, and then go to another island, hit it.  The Japanese couldn’t figure out where all these ships were coming from, but it was the same group.

Our ship could go up to 30 knots as part of a group.  A knot is a mile and an eighth, so it was about 35 miles an hour. Generally 25 knots is an average. The reason they kept it above 20 was so the Japanese subs could not torpedo us, and we zigzagged always so they couldn’t get a bearing.

The crew capacity was 3,000 people.  From the keel to the top of the mast was 12 stories, 12 floors.  The length of the Yorktown was about 872 feet long and 133 feet wide.  In the Navy you had more than one job, you had a major job and a minor job and other jobs depending on the circumstances.

I worked on the flight deck where the aircraft sit. You had people along each side, the port and starboard.  Forward, along the outside were ten 20-mm guns on each side.  Aft, you had ten more on each side of the flight deck.  On one side, the starboard side, in the middle of the ship, was a superstructure.  It held the operations:  the bridge, radar, communications, all the different brain systems of the ship.  Forward of the superstructure were two 5-inch quad guns.

Aft on the superstructure were 40 mm guns all the way around.  That was to protect the ship from planes that would dive in from heights, coming in off the water or in any direction.

Our ship was on duty 24 hours a day.  We used the 24-hour clock, like 0800, 01000.  The other method to tell time was the bell system.  There was one bell on the ship and it rang every half hour, 8 bells every four hours.  The crew below decks never saw daylight, and they would go by the bell system to know what time it was.  We had round-the-clock crew shifts, alternating between crews.

My first assignment was to a flight deck crew.  There were ten flight deck crews with ten men in each one.  The purpose of each crew was when a plane came in to land a crew would stand by. The plane would park and then that crew would push the plane into a spot.  Every time a plane moved on the flight deck you had to push it by hand.  You had to tie down the planes.  My first job was as a leader of one crew.  The Yorktown carried up to 85 aircraft.

The reason I was picked as a leader was I had been a Boy Scout and I had received my Eagle Scout Award two months before I went into service. And in Scouting you learned leadership.  You had people coming in from all parts of the country and so you had to learn how to deal with them. I always tried to talk to those on the crew when we were waiting for a plane to come in to find out more about them.

I wasn’t taught these jobs.  I had jobs assigned to me.  My first job was plane pusher, my second job was standing by the superstructure by the flight deck planner as a communicator.  When we went in or out of port, a pilot would come out by small boat because he knew the channel.  I would go to the bridge and take my earphone set and plug it in.  From the bridge, the flight deck overlaps the ship so you can’t see anything down underneath the flight deck.  When you are ready to go into port, the pilot is directing the ship, but he also has three or four tugs to help dock it.  The tugs are down underneath where they can’t be seen.  I had spotters around the ship, and the pilot would tell me the directions for the tug.  I would relay that to my spotter who would yell at the tug.  It took several hours to dock a ship.

On a ship you have several jobs.  If they couldn’t land airplanes, my next job was to go to the forward starboard side and mount the Number 3 20-mm gun and be either the loader or the shooter or the swinger.  My third job was in case there was an accident or a fire.  I helped carry CO2s or helped carry people on stretchers.

Can you imagine being 17 and never being out of the state of Missouri and all of a sudden traveling all over the globe?  We traveled almost 100,000 miles during 18 months.  We’d hit and run, hit and run, hit and run, hit and run, constantly.  During the 18 months we were back in port at Pearl Harbor several times.  That means we were at sea for 100 odd days at a time.

(The YORKTOWN launched attacks on additional islands during Joseph Cox’s tour, such as: Tarawa Island, Ebeye Islands, Enubuj Islands, Truk, Saipan, Tinian.)

We only got hit one time with a 500-pounder on the aft.  We were fortunate.  We had bullets hit and anti-aircraft just miss us and everything else.  I’d see 100 planes in a day, coming at us from all directions.

What do I think about death?  We saw people die because they were hit by the enemy or burned or in accidents.  We’d have burials at sea.  We were in action all the time and kept busy all the time.  During free time they always had things for us to do to keep our minds occupied.  Because things happened so fast and I was so young, I just accepted it as the way it was.  I lost some good friends.  You worked side by side.  You grew up awful fast.  And it affects everyone differently.  You never know what circumstances will be and that’s probably good.

I always liked the Navy because I always had a bunk.  I had been in ROTC and had had a touch of Army.  I really wanted to be aboard ship and see islands.  When I thought about the Army I always thought walking and carrying.

(Joseph Cox was transferred to Oceana Naval Base in Virginia on September 15, 1944.)

I remember some things when we weren’t in action.  One of the experiences at sea was in what is called a low pressure area.  You can’t see land.  When you are about 1,000 miles from land the sea is so calm it is like a mirror, and the only thing you see moving is the wake behind the ship, or flying fish.  The sunsets were beautiful.

One of the most exciting things was when we crossed the equator.  I found there was an old ritual that any time a ship goes across the equator.  It is considered a special event and they have a ceremony.  They lower the whale boats and they have people dressed up like King Neptune.  Anyone who hasn’t gone across the equator is called a "pollywog".  Anyone who has gone across becomes a "shellback".  The biggest event  was one time, after a year in the Pacific as a task group, we were heading to the Solomon Islands.  We crossed the International Dateline where it crosses the equator diagonally.  That is called a "Golden Shellback".  It is very rare, so I am a "Golden Shellback".

One time we went to New Hebrides Island to take in some injured crew, but it was also time for us to have some R & R.  Most islands of the Pacific were the same – coral, hilly, coconuts, rough terrain, hot, humid, rainy, beautiful sunsets.

My father saw the Yorktown in New Hebrides.  This was a post card my father sent after he saw the ship in New Hebrides.  It reads, "To my good son J. Matey.  A Very Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year.  Stay in there, kid, and pitch, for you are doing a good job.  Your Dad & Pal"

My father had joined as a Seabee.  My father, who had been in World War I, missed going over by 3 days or so, he was 17 or 18.  He was very patriotic.  At the time I joined he went down and asked to join because they needed carpenters.  My father, at the time, was 47 years old, which was considered an old man in war time. But he was a carpenter.  On examination, they found he had a double hernia.  They said they would send him to a hospital and if it proves out we’ll take you.  They took care of it, sent him to Rhode Island for training, and then he was sent overseas to the Pacific.  When I was at New Hebrides he saw my ship pull out.

Ironically, my older brother was in the Army Reserves when the war began and was called in right away.  I didn’t see him from 1941 until 1946.  My father was in the Seabees, I was in the Navy.  My next-to-youngest brother was in the Navy, and my youngest brother was in the Army.  My mother stayed home and worked.

I never saw my father for about three years.  My father came back in 1945 and I was stationed on the east coast.  He was discharged, went to Kansas City, picked up my mother, traveled to Oceana to pick me up and the three of us then traveled to New York City.  We went on tour, to Radio City, Empire State Building.  We went to several shows.  I stayed three days and they stayed five days.

The Yorktown is now in Charlestown, South Carolina as a permanent museum for aviation and represents the Medal of Honor winners.  I went to Charleston for the 40^th reunion in 1985. About 1,000 people attended.  I’d kept in touch with several people and I was able to recognize others by looking at the album they produced.  I looked at the pictures as they were and then I could place the people that were there.  People changed a lot.

Permission granted for use by Joseph Cox © 2001
Transcribed by Sandra Linville-Thomas

At her launching ceremonies on 21 January 1943, the USS YORKTOWN slid down the ways seven minutes ahead of schedule, before her christening ceremonies had been completed, although her sponsor, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, saw to it that the big aircraft carrier got her proper wetting of wine. Mrs. Roosevelt, surprised when the ship started to slide down the ways ahead of time, stepped forward quickly and swung twice to smash a bottle of champagne before the receding prow moved out of reach. Thereafter, the YORKTOWN was famed as an "eager" ship.

Captain Joseph James Clark, USN, was the YORKTOWN’s first commanding officer. He commanded her from her commissioning on 4 April 1943 until February 1944, when he was promoted to Rear Admiral and given command of a fast carrier task group in the Pacific.

The present carrier YORKTOWN (CV 10) is the fourth vessel to bear the name. The first was a 16-gun sloop of war of 566 tons built at Gosport Navy Yard, and launched in 1839. She was assigned duty with the U.S. Pacific Squadron from 1840 to 1846. She was ordered to the African Squadron in November 1848. On 6 September 1850 she was wrecked on a reef off the Isle of Mayo, one of the Cape Verde Isles. No blame was attached to her commander, and no lives were lost. The ship broke very quickly and little was salvaged.

The third YORKTOWN (CV 5), sunk on 7 June 1942 as the result of enemy action during and subsequent to the Battle of Midway, was built by the Newport News Shipbuilding Company, sponsored at the launching on 4 April 1936 by Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, and commissioned on 30 September 1937. The CV-5 was 761 feet long and displaced 19,900 tons.

YORKTOWN had been on a 104-day battle cruise when she was sunk, and she had participated in every major naval engagement of Pacific Fleet task forces. Beginning with the raid on the Gilbert and Marshall Islands in late January, the gallant carrier had put her planes in action against the enemy there, at Salamaua and Lae, New Guinea; at Tulagi, in the Solomon Islands, which was a Japanese base before the Marines captured it in August, and in the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway. Her dive bombers and torpedo bombers had damaged battleships and sunk or damaged cruisers, destroyers, aircraft carriers and transports, and had blasted Japanese shore installations which will never be exactly known.

The pages of history will be bright with the heroism of these men of the ill-fated YORKTOWN. Already hit by a bomb in the Battle of the Coral Sea, the battle at Midway was to hurl more of the same destruction at her. Thirty enemy bombers came over and all but five were shot down. One bomb hit put the ship’s boilers out of commission. Three more hits followed. From a chief petty officer and two men, hopelessly trapped five decks down, came by telephone this dramatic message: "Sure we know you can’t get us out, but we’ve got a helluva good acey-deucey game goin’ down here. When you sink her, put the torpedoes up forward. We don’t want it to last too long."

The present YORKTOWN (CV 10) continued the high standards of performance in battle set by her gallant namesake (CV 5), and compiled a stirring record of revenge against the enemy from the first time she stuck her nose into the Pacific until the end of the war.

After the usual shakedown cruise and post-shakedown repair periods, the new YORKTOWN was ordered into the Pacific side of the ward. She transited the Panama Canal on 11 July 1943 and headed for Pearl Harbor and onward routing to the forward area. En route the new carrier prepared herself well for her coming baptism of fire, which all hands knew, was in the offing by conducting daily drills in all departments.

YORKTOWN arrived at Pearl Harbor on 11 July, and on 22 August, in company with the aircraft carriers ESSEX and INDEPENDENCE, the cruisers NASHVILLE and MOBILE, the battleship INDIANA, and 10 destroyers; she departed the Hawaiian area for her first battle assignment. This force was designated Task Force 15 with orders to raid the Japanese Island of Marcus on 31 August by bombing and strafing.

The entire passage from Pearl Harbor to the point of launching aircraft, approximately 130 miles north of Marcus Island, was made (as far as it is known) without detection by enemy forces, so that at the appointed time the strike got underway without interruption from the unsuspecting Japanese. During the engagement YORKTOWN launched four separate attack groups, two anti-submarine patrols, and one searching group. All launchings were made on or ahead of schedule and the attack was a success. YORKTOWN flyers turned in a "Well Done" performance.

The attack on Marcus Island, though meeting with sporadic anti-aircraft resistance, inflicted heavy damage upon the enemy by setting huge fires on the island, destroying planes on the ground, damaging airstrips, blowing up fuel and ammunition areas and damaging mechanized equipment so that before the sun had begun to run its course that morning (this was a pre-dawn attack) the island fortress was a smoking shambles.

Following the attack on Marcus Island, YORKTOWN took a short breather and then participated in the attack on Wake Island on 5 and 6 October as a unit of Task Force 14. YORKTOWN launched five separate attack groups or strikes, three anti-submarine patrols, five combat air patrols, and one search during this operation. En route to the attack from Marcus Island, YORKTOWN crews again went into training, putting into practice the lessons they had learned during the Marcus Island attack, in order to make the YORKTOWN and her planes a more formidable adversary than before.

D-day for the Wake Island attack was at 0445 on 5 October and when it came, the YORKTOWN was fully prepared, for not only had her crews conducted drills en route to the attack area, but a few days and hours before the attack started saw the pilots engaging in recognition drill and familiarizing themselves thoroughly with the installations on the target. This was made possible by the excellent photographic coverage provided by the Army, and so complete was the briefing before this operation that the pilots almost had the installations and general terrain of the target memorized.

After the Wake Island attack, YORKTOWN returned to Pearl Harbor, arriving on 23 October. Her next operation was to be as a unit of Task Group 51.1 which conducted attacks on Mille, Jalutt and Makin Island on November 18, 20, 21 and 22, and in subsequent operations in connection with these attacks up to 27 November.

This force sortied from Pearl Harbor on 10 November, arriving at the launching point 80 miles south of Mille and 150 miles east southeast of Jalutt, without being detected by the enemy. Operations against the enemy consisted of air strikes against seaplanes, hangars, and shipping in Jalutt Atoll, and with bombing and strafing at other selected points in the path of the onslaught.

Next on YORKTOWN’s growing list of victims came Kwajalen and Wotje Atolls which were attacked on 4 December, during which attack YORKTOWN launched one attack on Kwajalein Atoll and one attack on Wotje Atoll, in addition to one flight deck scramble, three combat air patrols, and one group of aerial torpedo plane pickets.

Primary targets in this attack were major enemy ships. Secondary targets were aircraft and aircraft installations. In both cases the attacking forces accomplished their objectives. All major ships at Kwajalein were either sunk or seriously damaged, particularly hulls, as indicated by he great amount of oil around each ship. Aircraft and aircraft installations were attacked wherever found.

Unlike the attack on Marcus Island these attacks at Kwajalein and Wotje Atolls were made after dawn. These were not pre-dawn operations, but the results were very good. The enemy was completely taken by surprise, and the flyers had clear visibility in which to operate.

March 1 to 8 found YORKTOWN taking a short rest at Majuro Lagoon, Marshall Islands, at the expiration of which time she got underway for maneuvers and gunnery practice in preparation for future actions. YORKTOWN was really avenging her famous namesake these days, with one battle action after another, and not more than a few days respite between each engagement. And so after putting into Espiritu Santo on the 13^th, conducting further practice operations until the 23^rd, the big carrier, impatient for more action, smashed at the Japanese again from 30 March through 1 April in the operations against Palau Islands and Woleai Atoll. In this operation her planes smashed shipping, aircraft, hangars, runways, barracks and fuel dumps.

…From 11 to 24 June, YORKTOWN engaged in operations in support of the occupation of Saipan in the Marianas, during which operations her planes took a heavy toll of fuel dumps, warehouses and other ground installations on the island. However, her most interesting contact with the enemy during this operation came on the afternoon of 20 June when the following transmission was intercepted from one of the search planes of the USS HORNET: "Enemy fleet sighted. Time 1540…About ten ships. Looks like two small carriers…" Minutes later an amplifying report stated that there were two heavy cruisers and eight destroyers in one group, and probably two oilers and ten destroyers in another group.

At this time all of our carriers were carrying full loaded strike groups on deck, ready for launching against the enemy fleet, and about 45 minutes later YORKTOWN commenced launching her strike group which quickly effected a rendezvous and headed for the enemy fleet. The Japanese didn’t know it but the heat would soon be on. YORKTOWN’s planes left at about 1642 and they were over the enemy at 1840, having flown an estimated 275 to 300 miles. The enemy force was disposed into two distinct groups and subsequent observation revealed the presence of an additional group composed of tankers and a screen and also a fourth group of several battleships cruising independently without escorting destroyers. The YORKTOWN flyers wasted no time. They immediately went to work on the two principal groups made up of the carriers. They struck at this force with torpedoes and bombs with the Japanese throwing everything they had at them as they came in one torpedo and bombing run after another.

After hitting the largest carrier in the group with three 1000-pound bombs and six 250-pound bombs, dividing four 500-pound bombs evenly between two other small carriers, and smashing a light cruiser of the SENDAI class with one 500-pound bomb, plus several damaging near misses on nearly all of the ships attacked, YORKTOWN’s planes headed for home, less three pilots, four crew members and 18 aircraft. In the cold calculation of the war this is what it cost the YORKTOWN to do her part in smashing the Japanese fleet. But it was not a Cadmean victory. The Japanese had been hit by surprise and hit hard.

The most difficult part of the operation was the return and landing on the carrier which was complicated by low fuel, darkness with no visible horizon, and excessive number of confusing colored lights, and overlapping as well as overcrowded landing circles. However, with the exception of the losses sustained, all planes returned to the carrier.

By August the big carrier was sorely in need of repairs and her crew was deserving of a rest when orders came directing her to point toward the United States via Pearl Harbor. She took departure from Pearl Harbor on 11 August and headed diagonally up across the Pacific for a 51 day overhaul period at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington. Early in the morning of the 17^th Cape Flattery was sighted and by daybreak she was entering the Strait of Juan De Fuca. In the afternoon she anchored off Restoration Point, Puget Sound, to disembark the first leave party, and the next day she entered drydock to commence her overhaul period, during which time major alterations and repairs were effected.

Footnote:

Excerpted from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol. VIII, 1981, pp. 538-43.

Yorktown (CV-10) earned 11 battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation during World War II and five battle stars for Vietnam service.

You can see photos of the USS YORKTOWN and read more about it at the Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum web site http://www.state.sc.us/patpt/

[ Home ] [ Lloyd Smith ] [ Orvis Fitts ] [ Bea Notley ] [ Jack Barker ] [ H B Warren ] [ Larry Zeller ] [ Robert Butler ] [ Wilbur Mowen ] [ Robert Parks ] [ Don Lowery ] [ Withheld ] [ Dena Huitt ] [ Paul Herpich ] [ Carl Hull ] [ Mac Birkmann ] [ Frank Hashman ] [ Richard McConnell ] [ Al  Lubberts ] [ Bernard Welsh ] [ Joseph Cox ] [ George Kolb ]